Hog Calls

Spring goes swimmingly for Arkansas' Hiltz

FAYETTEVILLE -- Nikki Hiltz's spring has gone swimmingly.

So swimmingly that the water-logged, water-jogged Arkansas Razorbacks women's track senior star splashed her way to running the 1,500 meters at Thursday's and Saturday's NCAA Women's Outdoor Championships in Eugene, Ore., at Hayward Field where Hiltz formerly ran two years as an Oregon Duck.

Painful patellar tendinitis in Hiltz's right knee, coupled with painful irritation behind the kneecap first flaring in late December after the miler's best cross country autumn, worsened despite her fine indoor season. She won the SEC Indoor mile and took third in the NCAA Indoor mile.

By outdoor season, the six-time All-American trained mostly to eventually exclusively in the pool and on the Alter G machine simulating running without the pounding.

With Hiltz eyeing a pro track future beyond Eugene as a now UA graduate in sociology and criminal justice, coach Lance Harter suggested she cease her collegiate campaign and get healthy for U.S. Nationals.

Hiltz persisted for Arkansas. On the Monday of the SEC Outdoor, Hiltz, who had undergone a procedure earlier in the spring injecting bone marrow from her hip into her right knee, proclaimed she could run on the ground for the first time in weeks and did.

Harter remained reluctant.

"I felt I could run with the pain," Hiltz said. "He was like 'Are you sure?' I said, 'I think I can do it."

Harter agreed to give her the chance of running a 4:25 1,500-meter prelim May 12 at the SEC Outdoor in Knoxville, Tenn. that minimally would qualify her for the NCAA West Preliminary May 24 in Sacramento, Calif.

Hiltz ran 4:21 then finished All-SEC fourth in 4:22 in the next day's final.

At the West Preliminary, Hiltz ran second in her qualifying heat and clocked 4:13, just three seconds off her personal best.

"It's nice to know I can run at that pace," Hiltz said. "I was just trying to run for my place at Nationals. Then I looked at the clock and thought, 'No wonder I hurt."

Yeah, no wonder, says Harter, amazed but not surprised. He knew Hiltz wouldn't duck Oregon.

"I want to race at Hayward again," Hiltz said. "Because it's the last time to run in the stadium as we knew it (Hayward Field is scheduled for a 2-year renovation) and also the time to finish my career where it all began. It has been a dream of mine to win nationals at my old stomping grounds."

Realistically what are the chances with all that missed training?

"You can't think of what you haven't done," Hiltz said. "You've got to think of what you have done. I think anything is possible in the 1,500. The only thing you can predict in the 1,500 is it's going to be unpredictable."

Well, you can predict, Harter said, that Nikki Hiltz will amaze.

"Nobody is quite sure how she does what she does including the coach," Harter said.

Sports on 06/02/2018

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