FAYETTEVILLE -- It sounds like an Aggie joke.
A university in Texas using its own sports network to promote the Arkansas Razorbacks?
ARKANSAS TRACK AND FIELD
WHAT 89th annual Texas Relays
WHEN Today through Saturday
WHERE Myers Stadium in Austin, Texas
WHO More than 7,500 athletes from the collegiate, high school and professional ranks will compete.
TV Longhorn Network
NOTEWORTHY Arkansas men’s and women’s teams will have competitors at the Texas Relays as well as at the Stanford Invitational this weekend.
Yes, it's true.
But it's Texas, not Texas A&M.
Lance Harter, coach of Arkansas' women's track and field team, said an ESPN producer called him this week to get background information on the Razorbacks' heptathletes because they'll be featured prominently during the Longhorn Network's coverage of the Texas Relays.
Arkansas has five entrants in the heptathlon, which begins today at Texas' Myers Stadium in Austin.
Razorbacks senior Alex Gochenour is the Texas Relays defending heptathlon champion. She won last year with a career-best 6,027 points. Also competing for Arkansas are sophomores Taliyah Brooks and Payton Stumbaugh and freshmen Leigha Brown and Kelsey Harmon.
Brooks took second in the pentathlon at the NCAA Indoor meet earlier this month, with Stumbaugh fifth, Gochenour sixth and Brown ninth.
"They're going to feature our girls on the Longhorn Network, so that's a positive," Harter said. "The Texas Relays is a big thing for the Longhorn Network, and if they've got to fill the time, they might as well fill it with Arkansas.
"We'll enjoy the moment. I think it's great coverage for us."
Saturday's pole vault figures to be another highlight event for Arkansas at the Texas Relays, with freshmen twins Lexi and Tori Weeks of Cabot competing.
Lexi Weeks became the first freshman to win an NCAA Indoor pole vault title when she cleared 15-2. She cleared 14-9 last week to open the outdoor season and leads the nation along with Miami's Alysha Newman. Tori Weeks, sixth at the NCAA Indoor meet, cleared 14-1 1/4 last week and is tied for fifth nationally.
Arkansas' distance runners will compete at the Stanford Invitational on Friday night, led by three-time NCAA champion Dominique Scott in the 5,000 meters. Scott, a senior who didn't compete indoors, ran 4:15.61 in the 1,500 last week to lead the nation.
Harter said Scott ran that time at 5 p.m. after having an hour workout earlier that day.
"She was surprised by her time, but I wasn't," Harter said. "She's stronger than she's ever been."
Scott was named SEC runner of the week and Tori Weeks field athlete of the week.
Arkansas' men's team also will have its squad divided between the Texas Relays and Stanford Invitational.
Sophomores Alex George and Austen Dalquist and senior Cale Wallace will lead the distance runners at Stanford in the 5,000. Senior Frankline Tonui, injured during the indoor season, may run in the 10,000.
Senior Jarrion Lawson, a three-time NCAA champion for the Razorbacks, won't compete in the long jump at the Texas Relays, but he is expected to run on some relay races. Arkansas senior triple jumper Clive Pullen, this year's NCAA Indoor champion, will jump at the Texas Relays.
Arkansas men's Coach Chris Bucknam said at this early stage of the outdoor season, the Razorbacks are still transitioning from the outdoor season, and some athletes may be held out of events if they need a break.
"It's one of those situations where we'll play it by ear a little bit, because we've got a long season," Bucknam said. "We're still competing one month after school gets out, and so that's always in the back of our mind in regards to how many times you go to the well."
Sports on 03/30/2016