FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas men’s cross country Coach Chris Bucknam doesn’t mind having a target on his back because it’s a lot lighter than a monkey.
Bucknam’s 15th-ranked Razorbacks compete in the SEC Cross Country Championships today outside of Knoxville, Tenn. The 14thranked women Razorbacks try to overcome rival Florida and No. 3 Vanderbilt in the women’s race.
Arkansas is the odds-on favorite to win its second consecutive title. The Razorbacks finished third and second in Bucknam’s first two years, snapping a string of 34 consecutive conference titles.
With the conference title back in Arkansas’ hands, the Razorbacks have no intention of letting it go.
“Last year proved that, hey we can win this, we can do this,” Bucknam said. “The pressure is still there. Last year was getting over the hump. Now we feel like our program is on solid footing.”
The Razorbacks have slowly built for the postseason. After today’s SEC race, Arkansas has the regionals on Nov. 12 and the NCAA race on Nov. 21.
Arkansas’ top runner has been senior Eric Fernandez, who has been the top finisher in all three of the Razorbacks’ races this year. Freshman Patrick Rono has been SEC Freshman of the Week twice, and the Razorbacks have a deep stable of runners after that.
“I really like where this team is at right now,” Bucknam said. “We haven’t shown all our cards yet. We’ve got a taste a little bit of the talent that we have. We have seven or eight, nine really good runners who are not that far apart.”
As the defending champion, not to mention the quality of runners they have shown, the Razorbacks are expected to win today. Bucknam said those expectations are fine with him.
“It means you’ve done something right,” Bucknam said. “We’re ranked 15th right now, and I think we’re better than that. I always want to go into these meets with a target on our backs because it means we’ve done something good.”
The women were expected to be co-favorites with defending champion Florida — which beat Arkansas by one point in last year’s meet — but Vanderbilt jumped from being unranked to third after winning a meet in Wisconsin in mid-October. Vanderbilt has a quality team, but Arkansas and Florida were considered the conference’s two best teams before Vanderbilt’s shocking victory.
“They have a lot of confidence,” women Razorbacks Coach Lance Harter said. “Now they’re the favorite, and we’ll see if they can duplicate what they did in Wisconsin. We’re looking forward to matching up with them.”
The Razorbacks have relied on senior Kristen Gillespie, sophomore Stephanie Brown and a trio of talented freshmen to lead the team this year. Freshman Jessica Jackson has been named SEC Freshman of the Week after every race she has run this year.
At a glance
WHEN Today WHERE Lambert Acres Golf Club, Maryville, Tenn. SCHEDULE Men’s 8K at 9 a.m.; women’s 6K at 10 a.m. DEFENDING CHAMPS Men: Arkansas; Women: Florida CONTENDERS Men: No. 15 Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Florida; Women: No. 3 Vanderbilt, No. 14 Arkansas, Florida
Sports, Pages 15 on 10/31/2011