Arkansas Spring Invitational opens home outdoor season
FAYETTEVILLE – The Razorbacks host the first of three home meets during the 2025 outdoor season with the Arkansas Spring Invitational on Saturday, April 12, at John McDonnell Field.
The meet will be streamed on SEC Network + starting at 1 p.m. Live results are available through flashresults.com at this link. The Fastest Kid in Fayetteville will be part of the schedule for kids ages 6-12, with races starting at 3:15 p.m.
Teams competing in the Arkansas Spring Invitational include Allen (Kan.), Highland (Kan.), Indian Hills (Iowa), Kansas, Louisiana Tech, Missouri Southern, Missouri State, NorthWest Arkansas, Oklahoma Baptist, Oklahoma Christian, Oklahoma State, Pittsburg State, Rogers State, St. Thomas (Minn.), Tulsa, and Washburn.
“When you open a business you have a soft opening,” noted Arkansas men’s head coach Chris Bucknam. “This is what our first home outdoor meet is, kind of a soft opening. Next week it starts to get real when we go to the Mt. SAC Relays and Bryan Clay Invitational out in California.
“This is our outdoor opener and we’re a couple of weeks behind some other conference schools, but we’ve done this by design. We’re coming off a really emotional and intense indoor season. So, you have to kind of exhale after indoors.”
Relay events will include quite a few Razorbacks as Arkansas enters three 4 x 100m relay crews and a trio of 4 x 400m relay squads.
“We’ll run a number of combinations in both relays and have three relays in each,” said Bucknam. “That works out well because we get a bunch of kids running, passing a stick, and it’s a great way to open up our outdoor season especially with our short sprinters.
“The main thing for us is kicking off our outdoor season, making sure we leave this meet on Saturday healthy and we’ll have a little bit of knowledge going into Mt. SAC, where things really start to ramp up.”
In the 110m hurdles an Arkansas crew of TJ Caldwell, Brevin Sims, and Karamoko Sacko race in the final section with alum Elijah Morris as well as Cordell Tinch, who placed fourth in the Paris Olympics. Tinch set his career best of 12.96 at John McDonnell Field in June of 2023.
Razorbacks competing in sprint events include Juriad Hughes, Jr., Connor Washington, and Tevijon Williams in the 100m; Jaden Smith and Jonah Vigil in the 200m; while Zyaire Nuridden contests the 400m.
An Invitational 800m will feature Tyrice Taylor in section one while Rivaldo Marshall is in the second section.
Scottie Vines and Cooper Williams are entered in the high jump. The long jump field includes Sebastian Berntsen, Henry Kiner, Uroy Ryan, and Hughes along with alum LaQuan Nairn. Lindsey Link will compete in the triple jump.
Arkansas decathletes Jaxon Bair, Cale Kassen, and Marcus Weaver are entered in the discus along with alum Jack Turner.
