Stanford Invitational begins Razorbacks outdoor campaign

STANFORD – After accomplishing an indoor national championship earlier this month, Arkansas embarks on its outdoor campaign this weekend at the Stanford Invitational. The meet, which started in 1975, features distance races in a cool climate along with competitive fields in various events.

Coverage of the Stanford Invitational will be on subscription service FloTrack (https://flosports.link/3AnrZCd), starting at 1 p.m. (CT) on Friday. Live results will be available at this link: https://rt.trackscoreboard.com/meets/33123/events.

“We anticipated that we would need a little bit of a break after the indoor season,” said Arkansas men’s head coach Chris Bucknam. “This meet at Stanford is going to allow us to be in a good environment to get this ball rolling. This is a good meet for us. It’s a good distance meet as well as a good throws meet.

“New events will be the main change for us outdoors as we add the 4 x 100 relay, the 400m hurdles and the discus. Our big event outdoors is the discus, which includes Rojé Stona and Ralford Mullings. They both threw the shot put indoors and made huge improvements. In the discus they are both national scorers.”

During the indoor season Jordan West broke the UA shot put record set by Scott Lofquist in 1983 with his 66-7 (20.29) silver-medal performance at the SEC Championships. Then West bettered the UA outdoor mark of 66-9.5 (20.35) which was set by Marty Kobza in 1983 with a career best toss of 67-2 (20.47) in placing fifth at the NCAA Indoor.

The discus school record of 205-4 (62.60) set by Lofquist in 1982 will be under threat this outdoor season as career best marks for the current Razorbacks measure 214-6 (65.39) for Mullings and 213-7 (65.11) for Stona. Both marks came in big meets with Mullings winning the Mt. SAC Relays while Stona finished second in the Penn Relays.

Mullings, a bronze medalist at the 2022 NCAA Championships after claiming silver at the Pac-12 conference meet while at Arizona State, opened with a 204-11 (62.47) in mid-March at the Baldy Castillo Invitational last year.

Stona, a silver medalist from the 2021 NCAA Championships as well as an ACC champion (2019) and two-time conference silver medalist (2021, 2022) while competing for Clemson, won the Texas Relays a year ago opening the season with a throw of 197-10 (60.31).

The discus field at Stanford will include Razorback decathletes as well with the crew of Ayden Owens-Delerme, Yariel Soto Torrado, Daniel Spejcher, Noah Swaby, and Marcus Weaver.

Swaby and Weaver are also entered in the 110m hurdles, and the pair will join Soto Torrado and Spejcher in the pole vault.

Distance races on Friday evening will have Patrick Kiprop racing at 10,000m along with Jacob McLeod, and Myles Richter. The 5,000m will include Reuben Reina, Elias Schreml, and Ben Shearer. Jack Williams will compete in the 3,000m steeplechase.

Racing in 1,500m are Ricardo Banks, Tommy Romanow, Leroy Russell III, and B. Shearer. Sprinter Chris Bailey, who set the UA indoor 400m record with a 45.09, will contest the 800m, marking his debut in the event.

Razorbacks in the 110m hurdles also includes Shaka Bogan and Matthew Lewis-Banks. Entered in the 400m hurdles are Jeremy Farr, Tre’Bien Gilbert, Phillip Lemonious, and Brevin Sims. Doubling in the 200m are Lemonious, Lewis-Banks, and Sims.

Arkansas will have a crew of four in the 100m which includes Brandon Battle, James Benson II, Lance Lang, and Connor Washington. A squad of six Razorbacks in the 400m includes Phillip Anderson, Devontie Archer, Jadon Bartholomew, Ethan Carney, Tristan LaVan, and TJ Tomlyanovich.

In the long jump Arkansas will have John Baker, Ryan Brown, Shakwon Coke, and Link Lindsey. Competing in the high jump are Tomas Ferrari, Christian Matamoros, and Kason O’Riley.

Stanford Invitational Schedule (PT) | Arkansas Entries