FAYETTEVILLE -- Once a year, the defending SEC champion Arkansas Razorbacks men's and women's cross country teams willingly defer to high school and recreational athletes.
Not only willingly deferring but bending over backwards to accommodate describe the mutual efforts that Arkansas men's Coach Chris Bucknam and women's Coach Lance Harter and the Chile Pepper Festival board have made for Saturday's 27th annual Chile Pepper to fit each other's schedule.
Chile Pepper's annual mid-October Saturday date started conflicting with two major college races attracting national fields, the Wisconsin Invitational, which Harter's women will run Oct. 16, and the NCAA Preview that Bucknam's men will run Oct. 17 on the same course in Louisville, Ky. hosting the NCAA Championships on Nov. 21.
Both Razorbacks teams always ran Chile Pepper on the UA's Agri Farm until after consecutive years that first Harter's squad and then Bucknam's squad didn't win their NCAA District meet. Because they hadn't run head to head with so many elite teams at Wisconsin or the Preview, those Arkansas teams hadn't accumulated the power rating points for full team at large consideration to the NCAA Championships.
Most reluctantly, Harter's women and Bucknam's men alternately skipped a Chile Pepper for Wisconsin or the Preview.
The Chile Pepper Festival went on fine without them but all wanted all Razorbacks inclusion. An earlier date was arranged which was no small feat for the Chile Pepper board to accomplish with all the high schools and volunteers.
So on a Chile Pepper program bringing thousands to Fayetteville for a day-long festival, Bucknam's men will run their collegiate race at 9:45 a.m. and Harter's women will race at 10:20 a.m.
"There is nothing like being at home with a lot of energy," Bucknam said. "That's what we see at the NCAA Championships and a couple of the Indoor meets that we have like the SEC on the track and this is the equivalent to that. It's a community event and we thank our lucky stars that we have that kind of cross country meet."
Texas Tech and Baylor are among the major entrants in a large collegiate field also including smaller division teams from throughout the South and Midwest.
"We benefit from running the course and we will have 30 or 40 teams which gives you a semblance of the start of the NCAA meet," Harter said.
Bucknam and Harter said Saturday they will compete their whole teams for the first time this season.
Chile Pepper marks both Arkansas teams' first major meet leading into the Oct. 30 SEC Championships in College Station, Texas and proven, from Arkansas stars past and present, ultimately to attract some premier Razorbacks.
It's not just themselves recruiting from Chile Pepper, Bucknam and Harter say.
"It's a great high school recruiting tool for the whole university," Bucknam said. " Because there are a lot of kids out there that won't be running for us but will be on campus and look at the university after the race is done."
Sports on 09/28/2015