National Coach of the Year honors for Chris Bucknam, Travis Geopfert

NEW ORLEANS – National honors for the indoor track and field season, as announced by USTFCCCA, included Men’s Coach of the Year for Chris Bucknam and Assistant Coach of the Year for Travis Geopfert.

In a season in which the Razorbacks swept men’s and women’s SEC and NCAA Indoor team titles, Arkansas became the first school to claim all four indoor coaching honors since assistant coach awards were added in 2008.

Arkansas women’s head coach Lance Harter earned Coach of the Year while Chris Johnson was named women’s Assistant Coach of the Year.

This marks the second time Bucknam has been named USTFCCCA Indoor Men’s Coach of the Year while it’s the third time Geopfert has earned the Indoor Assistant Coach of the Year.

Bucknam’s Razorbacks entered the NCAA Indoor meet ranked No. 1 and delivered a convincing victory, scoring 63 points and winning the meet by 23 points over Georgia (40). It was the 21st NCAA Indoor championship for the Arkansas men and 42nd overall national championship.

The Razorbacks scored points in a total of nine events, hitting double digits in four – long jump (15), triple jump (13), heptathlon (10), and 4 x 400 relay (10). Additional points were produced in the 200, 400, 5000, distance medley, and shot put.

Among world rankings for the 2023 indoor season, Arkansas had 10 marks rank among the world top 10. In addition to a world-leading 3:01.09 in the 4 x 400 relay, Chris Bailey produced the leading 600m time of 1:15.18.

Ranked second in the world were Carey McLeod in the long jump (8.40) and Ayden Owens-Delerme in the heptathlon (6,518). Ranked third on the 2023 world indoor list are Jaydon Hibbert in the triple jump (17.54), the NCAA winning 3:02.09 by the Razorbacks in the 4 x 400 relay, as well as the distance medley relay (9:22.13) on 200m tracks.

Additional world top 10 marks include: Wayne Pinnock, fifth in long jump (27-4|8.33); Chris Bailey, fifth in the 400m (45.09), and Lance Lang, equal ninth in the 200m (20.47).

In addition to winning the NCAA Indoor championship by a large margin, the Razorbacks also had the leading number of first-team All-America honors with 18 accolades from 14 individuals. Following with 11 each were Florida and Washington.

Overall, Arkansas had the leading number of combined men’s and women’s first- and second-team All-America honors with 36. Following were Texas (29), Washington (26), Florida (25), and Stanford (20).

Arkansas Men | First-team All-America | 14 athletes, 18 honors