FAYETTEVILLE — In their Arkansas Razorbacks cross country coaching tenures, men’s Coach Chris Bucknam never approached the SEC Championships off an individual performance like senior Kemoy Campbell winning the Wisconsin adidas Invitational two weekends ago, and women’s Coach Lance Harter never had a team nationally ranked higher than his No. 2 Razorbacks after beating 17 of 18 nationally ranked teams at Wisconsin including then-No. 1 Providence.
Only new No. 1 Arizona surpassed the Arkansas women at Wisconsin, the most nationally loaded pre-NCAA Championship meet of the year even with the NCAA Preview meet run the same day in Terre Haute, Ind.
Considering that Florida, the reigning SEC Women’s champion and its Gators men, generally regarded as the biggest threat to Bucknam’s defending SEC champions, didn’t run remotely close to
Arkansas in either Wisconsin race, might Bucknam and Harter train their teams right through Friday’s SEC Championships in Gainesville, Fla., to prep early for the NCAA South Central Regional Nov. 15 in Waco, Texas, and the Nov. 23 NCAA Championships in Terre Haute?
Absolutely not, both coaches assert.
His women jumping from No. 8 to No. 2 in the national rankings has no bearing on Friday’s SEC meet, Harter said. He recalled the 2011 SEC meet that his Razorbacks and Florida were co-favored to win. “It was supposed to be between us and Florida, and Vanderbilt stole it from us and did a great job,” Harter said.
Arkansas ran second to Vanderbilt in 2011 SEC Cross Country and were beaten by Florida last year with Arkansas’ since graduated best runner of 2012 failing to score.
So trouncing Florida and Vandy in Wisconsin still means a clean slate for Harter’s women, led by Grace Heymsfield of Elkins, in their quest finally to be the SEC bride instead of bridesmaid.
“We are really, really tired of being second, I can tell you that,” Harter said.
SEC championships — his Razorbacks have won consecutive SEC Cross Country, Indoor and Outdoor triple crowns — now seem to be occurring as routinely for Bucknam as they did for John McDonnell, his 84-time conference champion predecessor.
However at Arkansas, all it takes is not winning at conference (Buck-nam’s first two cross country teams did not win the SEC before his current string of three SEC Cross Country crowns began in 2010) to appreciate that no conference championship is routine.
“To me, conference is every bit as important as the national championship,” Bucknam said. “Because when you win a title it is there forever. The SEC is circled in red on our schedule. We won’t hold back at conference.”
Although possibly pressed by teammate Stanley Kebenei, second-year junior college transfer Campbell, whose second place in the NCAA Indoor 3,000 cinched Arkansas’ NCAA Indoor championship last March, will be a heavy favorite to win the SEC Cross Country individual title after leading the Wisconsin field practically from start to finish.
“He’s the real deal and he’s on a mission,” Bucknam said. “He’s doing stuff he couldn’t come close to last year. He has really upped his game.”