FAYETTEVILLE -- Arkansas' SEC Cross Country championships come so automatically that they seem automatic.
That doesn't mean the cross country titles earned Friday by Coach Lance Harter's women and Coach Chris Bucknam's men are not earned and deserved.
Harter's women won their fourth consecutive SEC title in cross country and Bucknam's men are SEC cross country champs for a seventh consecutive time, and both teams had something to prove.
For Harter's women, they had to show there is championship life after Olympian Dominique Scott, their graduated 3-time SEC Cross Country champion, four-time NCAA track champion and distance key to the women's 2015 NCAA Indoor and 2016 NCAA Outdoor national championships.
They proved it, 46-76 over runner-up Ole Miss.
Sophomore Devin Clark's second place to Missouri favorite Karissa Schweizer beat Ole Miss' top finisher by five places.
Clark recalled it was a "huge inspiration seeing "Dominique's ponytail bouncing way ahead" when they competed last fall.
"You come in as a little, scared freshman and all you can think about is all the expectations you are to uphold," Clark said. "Just being able to hold them, it's awesome."
The No. 11 Ole Miss Rebels men came to Fayetteville firmly believing they could upset No. 6 Arkansas.
The Rebels men were favorites to win last year's SEC Cross Country in College Station, Texas, but fizzled a poor third.
Arkansas' men and women swept last year's SEC Indoor meet in Fayetteville, but the Razorbacks men relied primarily on field events and sprints.
Ole Miss mostly ran the Razorbacks off their own track from the mile up and weren't bashful about it.
Alex George, an Englishman but thoroughly into the Arkansas-Ole Miss rivalry, was visibly distressed.
George got revenge Friday. He broke away uphill to win the 8,000 meter races by 13 seconds (23:24.9) over Ole Miss runnerup Sean Tobin and lead Arkansas' 25-38 victory.
"It's a nice little rivalry," George said. "We're pretty handy on the track, too. But they dished it to us indoors and we just wanted to get them back in cross country and make them hurt a bit, especially on our home course."
Tobin and Ole Miss' MJ Erb may have been hurt when they tried to summon adrenaline as George pulled away. But they finished second and third. The team title could have been up for grabs.
Razorbacks Jack Bruce, Frankline Tonui, and Andrew Ronoh, fourth through sixth, and Austen Dalquist, ninth, ended the suspense before Ole Miss scored 10th through 12th.
Ole Miss so menaced Arkansas' SEC string that Bucknam activated Ronoh, a talented junior-college transfer who has not raced since injuring his Achilles tendon during last May's NCAA Outdoor Preliminary meet.
"He's been pretty much into just a month of running," Bucknam said. "His second race, (the NCAA South Central Regional that Arkansas hosts Nov. 11) hopefully he's got more of his feet underneath him, so to speak."
Most important, Ronoh's feet stand on another conference cross country championship. They are championships still treasured by Bucknam's men and Harter's women even if they seem as Arkansas autumn automatic as falling leaves.
Sports on 10/31/2016