UA sports roundup

Harter: No room to slip up

Arkansas women’s track and field Coach Lance Harter isn’t listening to the talk that this weekend’s SEC Indoor Championships will come down to the Razorbacks and LSU.

No one doubts that No.

2 LSU and No. 4 Arkansas are the top contenders, but the overall talent throughout the league is strong. No.

21 Florida is the defending conference champion, and No. 6 Tennessee won the title in 2005, 2007 and 2009.

“It’s going to be a dog fight,” Harter said. “Every point is going to be sacred.

I’ve been in the SEC long enough [to know] there’s always someone who gets on a roll and puts up good numbers.”

Arkansas enters the meet expecting to score bushels of points in several key events: the pole vault, the 400-meter run and the 1,600- and distance medley relays. The Razorbacks have the SEC’s top two pole vaulters, three of the top five 400 runners and the top marks in both relays.

The Razorbacks have 20 individual and relay teams with top-six marks in the conference.

“We’re going to go in with team balance and try to score from every angle we possibly can,” Harter said. “On any given day, we can get our fair share of victories. It’s a matter of trying to gather as many of those other points - seconds through eighths - as we possibly can.” MEN’S GOLF Case of the hiccups

Arkansas had its worst finish of the season witha eighth-place finish at the Battle of the Beach in California on Feb. 15.

A solid first round put Arkansas in good position before two of the Razorbacks’ best golfers, Jamie Marshall and Sebastian Cappelen, posted consecutive scores of 7-and 4-over par on holes in the second round. Marshall had an 11 on a par-4 hole while Cappelen had a 7 on a par 3.

“We had a little hiccup,” Coach Brad McMakin said.

“It kind of snowballed from there. That was a little shock to me. It was the first time in my coaching career that I’ve witnessed something like that.”

The Razorbacks had finished in the top four in five fall matches but failedto respond to the adversity.

McMakin called the team’s third round pitiful.

Arkansas tries to recover at the John Hayt Invitational in Florida on Sunday-Tuesday.

SOFTBALL

Long-term victory

Arkansas Coach Mike Larabee said the team’s victory against top-ranked and defending national champion UCLA will hopefully have long-lasting effects on his team.

The Razorbacks beat UCLA 4-3 on Feb. 18 in a tournament in Las Vegas.

Arkansas (5-5) went 2-3 in the tournament, including an 8-7 loss to No. 14 Oregon.

“You can tell your players until you’re blue in the face that they have a chance to beat anybody in the country,” Larabee said.

“Until they do it, I don’t think they believe it.

“At this point in time, we know that no matter who we play in the SEC or out of conference, if we play to our potential we can compete with anybody.”

Sports, Pages 15 on 02/25/2011

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