The only thing track coaches really know about this weekend's state indoor meets is there will be a lot of unknown factors involved.
Unlike the outdoor track season -- when athletes have a number of meets to hone their skills -- there aren't a lot of indoor meets preceding this weekend's event at the Randal Tyson Track Center.
At A Glance
Arkansas state indoor track and field championships
At Randal Tyson Track Center, Fayetteville
Class 1A-4A
WHEN 5:30 p.m. today, beginning with 60-meter hurdles, boys pole vault and boys shot put
Class 5A-7A
WHEN 11 a.m. Saturday, beginning with 60-meter hurdles, boys pole vault and boys shot put
"There's only one race in the state before this meet, and not everybody runs in it," Rogers High School boys Coach Carlton Efurd said. "It's going to be an interesting meet because it's hard to predict.
"You expect the top teams like Bentonville, Fayetteville and maybe Bryant to be in the hunt again this year. After that, it's hard to tell."
A limited number of athletes participated in the Arkansas High School Invitational, which was held two weeks ago in Fayetteville.
Something else missing from this year's meet will be athletes who could pile up a lot of points, such as multi-event standouts Tori and Lexi Weeks of Cabot, both of whom are now collegiate pole vaulters at the University of Arkansas.
"There are still a few good athletes," Bentonville girls Coach Randy Ramaker said. "You have McKenzie Penne from Fayetteville, who is pretty good, and Julianne Dillon from Har-Ber has run a good 600 this year.
"There's not a lot of data out there. We've had one girl triple jump, one girl run the 200 and two run the 800. Not a lot of kids have participated in indoor this year, and I don't know why. I guess the timing of the meets and how early the state indoor meet is has something to do with it."
Coaches will have to build around what they do know about their teams. Efurd expects to get good scores from Jake Benninghoff in the high jump and Tony Roller in the hurdles and the jumps, as well as Sterling Smith in the 400.
Ramaker will do the same with Bentonville's girls. The Lady Tigers return Anna Griffin -- last year's indoor shot put champion -- a number of pole vaulters led by Isabel Neal and Jade Donnell, and several distance runners from this year's state championship cross country team.
"Thankfully, a lot of our kids ran indoor last year," Ramaker said. "For those kids, I'm not so much worried about. It's the newcomers that haven't been on that oval. One of our 800 runners that ran in the invitational meet hit the rail three times."
The state indoor track meet begins today for Class 1A through 4A schools, while the Class 5A through 7A schools will have their meet Saturday.
Sports on 02/05/2016