FAYETTEVILLE -- Three years ago it didn't appear Andrew Irwin of Mount Ida had the stomach to vault from national high school and U.S. junior pole vault champion to his University of Arkansas freshman indoor season debut against Texas.
"I woke up that morning sick and throwing up," Irwin recalled.
Finally, by late afternoon, Irwin kept some crackers down and vowed to be up and vaulting that night.
Irwin soared 18-0 1/4, winning the vault and setting a Razorbacks indoor record that he improved to 18-8 1/4 among his two national championships.
His adrenaline was enhanced because that debut came against Texas. For even in a sport where ultimately the only meets that matter are the SEC Indoor and NCAA Indoor championships and dual meets seem inconsequential, a scored dual meet with Texas still inspires most any Arkansas native son or daughter and those recruited elsewhere to join them.
Thus despite this early season tuneup stage, Arkansas men's Coach Chris Bucknam and Arkansas women's Coach Lance Harter and their athletes expect their teams to compete with an edge at Friday night's dual meet between Arkansas and Texas at the Randal Tyson Indoor Track. The Arkansas edge seems a little sharper since the Razorbacks football team demolished Texas 31-7 in the Texas Bowl on Dec. 29.
"I would definitely say the Arkansas-Texas dual, that rivalry is really strong still," said Irwin, now a senior. "And after that [football] win over Texas, it is definitely going to help thrive our fire."
Apparently the rivalry not only extends beyond the Arkansas and Texas borders but beyond national borders.
"You have Texas and Arkansas in the same room, it provokes conversation," Harter said. "I am recruiting a kid from Canada and she knew about the game and that we won."
While dual meets are mere qualifying steppingstones for the NCAA Indoor meet, track pundits will take note of a dual meet with Bucknam's men nationally ranked third and Texas Coach Mario Sategna's men ranked eighth, while Sategna's Texas women are ranked fifth and Harter's Arkansas women are ranked seventh.
"Texas is a great program, well-coached," Bucknam said. "Their women were national runners-up, and our women have a phenomenal program. So it's a great matchup. Same with the men."
The lead-in to last month's Texas Bowl of course revived memories of Arkansas-Texas football epics, as well as basketball and baseball.
It was no less intense in track and cross country.
Texas rancor over retired coach John McDonnell's men's team seizing Southwest Conference control with four consecutive conference triple crowns from 1982-85 so manifested that at an NCAA Outdoor on a cold, damp day in Eugene, Ore., Texas -- even though it didn't have a team in the event -- unsuccessfully protested that Arkansas' 4x100 relay team should have been disqualified for uniform violations. Two Razorbacks ran in tights because of the cold.
"Us and Texas have had a longstanding rivalry in all sports," Arkansas men's sprint-vault coach Doug Case said in understatement.
Sports on 01/14/2015