FAYETTEVILLE -- A check of the SEC's top times and marks for men's track and field this outdoor season shows Arkansas with only one leader: sophomore Alex George in the 5,000 meters.
"As a head coach, it almost makes you physically ill looking at the times from other schools, knowing that we haven't even run our guys in some of their events yet," Arkansas Coach Chris Bucknam said. "We've been keeping our guys in the corral, but now it's time to start letting them loose."
John McDonnell Invitational
WHEN 2 p.m.-5:30 p.m. today, 3 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Saturday
WHERE John McDonnell Field, Fayetteville
WHO Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma State, Wisconsin, Kansas State, Minnesota, Memphis and Arkansas Baptist will have men’s and women’s teams competing
ADMISSION $5 for adults. Free for 17 and under
The No. 7-ranked Razorbacks will begin showing what they're capable of outdoors when some of their stars -- led by senior NCAA champions Jarrion Lawson and Clive Pullen -- compete in their specialties for the first time this season today and Saturday at the John McDonnell Invitational.
Lawson, a two-time national long jump champion, will long jump at 3:30 p.m. today. Pullen, who won his first NCAA triple jump title this year indoors, will triple jump at 3 p.m. Saturday.
"We're going to be ready to rock and roll," said Razorbacks assistant Travis Geopfert, who coaches the jumpers. "Training has been going really well, so hopefully we're ready to go out there and put up some decent marks. I think they could jump pretty far."
Lawson will be using a longer approach for the long jump, moving back from 20 to 22 steps from the runway board.
"It's based on how fast Jarrion is running now," Geopfert said. "He's faster than ever, so he needs to back up further from the board to get fair jumps."
Lawson and Arkansas sophomore Kenzo Cotton will run in the 100 meters at 4 p.m. Saturday along with Oklahoma State's John Teeters, who took third in the 60 at the NCAA Indoor meet this year with Lawson fifth and Cotton seventh.
Former Razorback Wallace Spearmon Jr., a two-time Olympian and three-time NCAA champion, also will run in the 100.
"The marquee race is the 100," said Arkansas assistant Doug Case, who coaches the sprinters. "It could be real hot."
For Arkansas' No. 2 women's team, the pole vault will be the feature event at 5:30 p.m. Saturday with freshman twins Lexi and Tori Weeks, who took first and sixth at the NCAA Indoor meet this year.
Former Razorback Sandi Morris, who won the pole vault at this year's USA Championships, also is competing.
Arkansas' men's and women's teams are focused on peaking for the SEC meet May 12-14 and NCAA prelims May 27-28 and finals June 8-11.
"We've got to stay patient in order for us to make sure our guys have what it takes to go through all the rounds they're going to have from the SEC meet, to the first round of the NCAAs to the finals," Bucknam said. "We could have run some fast times early, but you can only go to the well so many times emotionally and physically."
Sports on 04/22/2016