Flag raising ceremony kicks off home meet weekend
FAYETTEVILLE – Prior to the Razorbacks hosting the Arkansas Spring Invitational on Saturday, April 11, at John McDonnell Field, there will be a flag raising ceremony at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 10, that is open to the public.
The Arkansas Spring Invitational will live stream on SEC Network + (https://shorturl.at/qF4Yx), starting at 1 p.m. CT, while live results are available through flashresults.com (https://shorturl.at/oSHG8).
In celebrating the 2026 NCAA Indoor national championship claimed by the Razorback men, flag No. 52 will be raised on the scoreboard end of the field.
“It’s tradition here,” noted Arkansas men’s head coach Doug Case. “The flag raising itself is a pretty cool ceremony we do. Just to sport that flag out there, day in and day out, shows what we’ve done through the years here at Arkansas in track and field.
“It’s a good feeling for the athletes who are at the track every day along with the coaching and support staff. Everybody is proud of that.”
Since starting the tradition in 2022 of a flag to commemorate the combined number of national championships for the Arkansas men’s and women’s track and field programs with No. 47, this will be the fourth time for a flag to be raised.
In 2023, flag No. 49 was raised to celebrate the pair of 2023 NCAA Indoor national team titles achieved by the Razorback women and men in Albuquerque. Then flags No. 50 and No. 51 were raised in 2024 to account for the NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor national title sweep accomplished by the women’s team during Chris Johnson’s first season as head coach.
In Case’s first season as men’s head coach, the Razorbacks claimed the 2026 NCAA Indoor championship while hosting the meet at Randal Tyson Track Center.
A field of 20 teams are entered in the Arkansas Spring Invitational. They include Barton County, Central Arkansas, Friends (Ks), Indian Hills (Ia), Kansas City, Little Rock, Missouri State, Murray State, Northwest Arkansas, Northwest Missouri, Oklahoma Baptist, Oklahoma Christian, Oklahoma State, Oral Roberts, Pittsburg State, Rogers State, Southwest Baptist, Tulsa, and Wichita State.
“After the NCAA Indoor meet we took a little break and we’ve had two to three weeks of good training,” said Case. “Now we’re ready for the outdoor season.
“As we generally do with early season meets, both indoor and outdoor, we run off events just to get guys out on the track and see where our fitness is right now. It will be preparation to head out to Los Angeles next week for the Mt. SAC Relays.”
An Invitational 800m features Tyrice Taylor and Rivaldo Marshall, who finished 1-2 for 18 team points at the NCAA Indoor meet. Competing in the Invitational 1,500m are Dawson Welch and Eli Seavey.
Arkansas will race a pair of crews in the 4 x 100m relay as well as three squads in the 4 x 400m relay. In addition, a majority of the Razorback 400m crew will compete in the 200m.
