FAYETTEVILLE -- Last year as a freshman at Oklahoma, Payton Stumbaugh sat in the Randal Tyson Track Center stands watching Arkansas' women's track and field team win the NCAA indoor national championship.
Stumbaugh didn't join in a Hog Call with the Razorbacks and their fans, but quietly celebrated.
"I was secretly cheering for Arkansas," said Stumbaugh, who won several 7A individual track titles at Springdale Har-Ber High School and was the state's three-time Gatorade Athlete of the Year. "I kind of already knew I wanted to be at Arkansas, and then being at the meet motivated me even more."
Stumbaugh said she couldn't help but feel envious of the Razorbacks.
"I was like, 'Dang, I wish I could be part of that,' " she said. "It was frustrating being up in the stands and not down on the track.
"But I hadn't even qualified for nationals. I didn't know if I'd get to that point."
Stumbaugh has made it and then some as a sophomore in the multi events and hurdles.
Since transferring from Oklahoma to Arkansas this year, she's been a two-time All-American indoors, scored big points for the Razorbacks' SEC championship teams indoors and outdoors and set two school records.
Stumbaugh will be looking for more All-American honors this week competing for Arkansas' No. 1-ranked team at the NCAA outdoor meet in Eugene, Ore. The Razorbacks are looking to win their first women's outdoor title.
"It's been a great and amazing journey being part of a winning team," Stumbaugh said. "The best thing ever."
Stumbaugh ranks fourth nationally outdoors in the 100-meter hurdles (school-record 12.83 seconds) and in the heptathlon (5,985 points) after finishing fifth in the pentathlon (4,371) and seventh in the 60 hurdles (second record 8.09) at the NCAA indoor meet.
"Most transfers need a longer adjustment period to the way we train, the team philosophy," Arkansas Coach Lance Harter said. "But Payton jumped right in feet first and here we go.
"She's been spectacular."
Stumbaugh didn't know if she'd be able to compete for Arkansas this year until July when she secured a scholarship release from Oklahoma.
If she hadn't gotten a release, Stumbaugh said she still would have transferred to Arkansas, but NCAA rules would have required her to redshirt.
Stumbaugh said she was granted a release after a committee made up of Oklahoma students and faculty voted in her favor.
"It was a really long and drawn out process," she said. "I had to fight to get released. I said to the committee, 'Please let me be happy,' and thankfully enough people voted for me."
Stumbaugh said she grew up wanting to be on Arkansas' track team, but she accepted a full scholarship to Oklahoma because of the promise she could compete in the multi events and hurdles.
Arkansas recruited her aggressively, she said, but wanted her as a pole vaulter and couldn't offer as much scholarship money.
Razorbacks field events coach Bryan Compton said Arkansas was willing to let Stumbaugh "do whatever events she wanted to do."
That wasn't the impression Stumbaugh had.
"All of Coach Compton's pole vaulters were my recruiting hosts," she said with a laugh. "So I was getting the vibe I was going to pole vault."
Stumbaugh said she also was excited to go to college away from home, but that feeling faded, especially when she didn't believe she was developing as an athlete the way she could at Arkansas.
"I realized real quick that I wanted to be back home and competing and training with the best at Arkansas," she said. "Being at Oklahoma just wasn't what I thought it would be for me.
"It's a great school and my teammates were great, but I just didn't have a strong bond with the coaches.
"Here I have that bond, and it really makes a difference in your performance. They understand me and I understand them."
Arkansas' coaches said Stumbaugh has exceeded all expectations in his first year with the Razorbacks.
"We knew she was talented, but as you coach her and get to know her, you find out that she's tremendously tenacious," said assistant Chris Johnson, who coaches the sprinters and hurdles. "
"It took her a little time to get used to some of the things we do and what we demand, but since then, she's taken off."
Nothing illustrates Stumbaugh's transformation at Arkansas better than her time in the 800 -- the heptathlon's last event -- improving from 2:27 to 2:14.
"She used to hate running the 800, but she's really done a great job of getting mentally tough and accepting that as one her better events now," Compton said.
Stumbaugh said Arkansas' fall workouts were unlike anything she'd experienced at Oklahoma or Har-Ber in terms of their intensity, distance and repetition.
"We'd run 600s, and I was getting beat by 50 meters at first," she said. "But seeing that my teammates could do it really motivated me.
"Now I can lead the 600s. I'm just in better shape and feel a lot more confident. Getting through all those grueling workouts that had me laying on the ground is paying off."
Sports on 06/07/2016