UA men keeping bar high

FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas Coach Chris Bucknam isn’t as quick as others to dismiss his track and field team’s chances at the NCAA Outdoor Championships.

The Razorbacks were considered solid contenders for a top finish at the NCAA Outdoor Championships before freshman pole vaulter Andrew Irwin failed to qualify for the national meet. That shock — Irwin was the indoor national champion and set the American junior record at the SEC Outdoors — dropped the Razorbacks from fourth to 12th in the national rankings heading into the NCAA outdoor meet, which begins today at Drake Stadium in Des Moines, Iowa.

Conventional wisdom became that Arkansas can put on a good show and hope for maybe a top-10 finish to go along with its national runner-up finish indoors.

Not quite, Bucknam said. He said he believes Arkansas has a strong enough team with 11 individual and relay qualifiers to compensate for Irwin’s absence.

“Our goal is to win the national championship,” Bucknam said. “I don’t think it’s a pie-in-the-sky deal. It’s going to be a very tough road for us, but if we have an outstanding meet, we can be in it.”

Bucknam admits losing the points Irwin was expected to score at nationals will hurt. While pole vault can be a fickle event — which Irwin proved in late May by not finishing in the top 12 at a national preliminary meet in Austin, Texas — Bucknam said he had planned on at least six points from a third-place finish by Irwin.

But Irwin was the only Razorback whom Bucknam was counting on who didn’t make nationals. Everyone else Bucknam penciled in to reach Des Moines made it, so the Razorbacks just need to figure out a way to make up for Irwin’s projected points.

At least, that’s how Bucknam sees it.

“We’re not going in with the attitude we’ll be happy with a top-four or a top-eight, because we feel we have the potential to score a lot of points,” Bucknam said. “We still have to do it. It’s not a knockout punch. We just got knocked down, so other guys have to step up.”

Bucknam’s confidence springs from his team’s dominance at the SEC meet, when the Razorbacks scored 196 points and won by a record 78 points. Arkansas won eight individual or relay titles at the SEC meet, and Bucknam is counting on his big-game performers to deliver again on a bigger and better stage.

“We’ve got some bangers in there,” Bucknam said. “We feel the same way before this meet as we did before the SEC meet. I sense our guys are mentally prepared to do it.”

The Arkansas women’s team doesn’t have such grandiose plans of making a run at a top finish.

The UA women, ranked 12th, have 10 entries in the meet, led by two-time indoor pole vault national champion Tina Sutej, who finished second on a tiebreaker last year.

Women’s Coach Lance Harter said he believes his team can score in the neighborhood of 20 points on the strength of Sutej and sprinter Regina George. The other entries aren’t as highly ranked, but Harter said the Razorbacks can creep up the standings with their depth.

“We have some major players who can win or finish in the top three,” Harter said. “Every point really makes a difference. Around 20 is realistic.

“Anything above that is gravy, anything just below that is a really good meet.”