No. 1 Arkansas seeks fourth consecutive title while hosting SEC Indoor

FAYETTEVILLE – The indoor campaign has reached the postseason stage and No. 1 Arkansas will serve as host to the SEC Championships this Friday and Saturday inside Randal Tyson Track Center with the Razorbacks seeking a fourth consecutive indoor conference team title.

For the third consecutive week Arkansas is No. 1 in the national rating index while a total of 11 SEC schools are ranked among the top 25 this week.

“I’m not going to shy away from it, we’re the favorites and I’ll be disappointed if we didn’t come out on top,” said Arkansas men’s head coach Chris Bucknam. “I think we’ve got a really good team, but we just have to go out and execute. That’s our gameplan and our motto for this week. There’s no question the target is on our back.”

Following Arkansas among the national top 10 are Washington, Texas Tech, Tennessee, Texas, Oklahoma State, Florida, Nebraska, USC, and Georgia. Other SEC programs among the top 25 are Alabama (11), Kentucky (14), South Carolina (17), Texas A&M (18), Mississippi State (20), Ole Miss (21), and Auburn (24).

In conference rankings, which measure the depth of a team, Arkansas leads the SEC by a large margin over Tennessee, Florida, Auburn, and Texas A&M.

“We’ve got our three main areas and we have firepower in all three of those event areas, whether it’s the distance running, or the jumps and throws, or sprints and hurdles,” said Bucknam.

“I feel good about it. We’ve got a lot of different ways that we can score points and that’s really important. It’s just not reliant on three to five people. I’m looking forward to seeing how we put it all together.”

Since joining the SEC in the early 1990s and hosting for the first time in 2000, the Razorbacks have previously hosted the SEC Indoor meet on 10 occasions and claimed the team title eight times at the Tyson Center. Florida has won twice during that span, in 2011 and 2019.

Heading into the conference championships the weekend, athletes from the SEC are currently world leaders in six events, two of which are not contested in the SEC, and collegiate leaders in three additional events.

Razorback Chris Bailey is a world leader this indoor season in three events, individually in the 400m and 600m, as well as a member of the 4 x 400 relay. His 400m time of 45.09 set a UA indoor record and even ranks No. 6 on the Arkansas outdoor all-time top 10.

“Chris Bailey is the No. 1 400m runner in the country, and don’t count out James Benson, who doesn’t have a national qualifying time yet,” noted Bucknam. “He’s going to be a contender for a title as well.”

Only one Arkansas sprinter has ever won the SEC Indoor 400m with Calvin Davis capturing a pair of titles in 1993 and 1994. The Razorbacks have only won the 4 x 400 relay once, in 2011, at the indoor conference meet. The 600m is not held in the SEC meet.

Among the three collegiate leaders from the SEC is Arkansas freshman Jaydon Hibbert in the triple jump. The last Razorback to win the indoor SEC triple jump was Clive Pullen in 2016. A total of nine Arkansas jumpers have claimed 12 titles in the event since 1992.

“We have some stars, there’s no question about that,” stated Bucknam. “I’m just excited to get them out there. One of our strengths is the horizontal jumps with the long jump and triple jump.

“So, it’s going to be fun to see Jaydon Hibbert open up with a full approach in the triple jump. Same with Wayne Pinnock, who is a defending national champion, where we’re looking to get a series of jumps in along with Carey McLeod.”

McLeod, the defending SEC Indoor long jump champion, currently ranks No. 4 in the long jump with a 26-6.5 (8.09), behind teammate and defending national champion Wayne Pinnock, who ranks No. 3 with a 26-7 (8.10). McLeod is also No. 7 on the 2023 collegiate list in the triple jump.

The last time Arkansas swept the SEC Indoor long jump and triple jump titles occurred in 2016 with Jarrion Lawson winning the long jump and Pullen claiming the triple jump.

Ayden Owens-Delerme will contest the heptathlon for the first time this season and is joined by Daniel Spejcher and Marcus Weaver.

“He’ll just focus on the hept,” Bucknam noted of Owens-Delerme. “In of itself that’s a lot events. We’re not out to break any records, we’re out to win the meet. That’s our primary goal. Priority one is to score the most points.”

Arkansas also has a trio of Razorbacks in three additional events – 60m hurdles, distance events, and the shot put.

With nearly identical times, the hurdle crew of Tre’Bien Gilbert (7.69), Matthew Lewis-Banks (7.71), and Phillip Lemonious (7.73) rank 3-4-7 in the conference 60m hurdles. Lemonious and Gilbert placed seventh and eighth a year ago.

Patrick Kiprop recently broke the UA record at 5,000m and ranks second in the league to Tennessee’s Dylan Jacobs. Kiprop, the high point scorer at the 2022 SEC Outdoor Championships, ranks sixth in the 3,000m.

Myles Richter joins Kiprop in the 3,000m and & 5,000m combo while Ben Shearer will also race in the 3k.

The shot put field, with the top three entrants separated by four inches, includes a trio of Razorbacks led by Jordan West, who was a silver medalist with Tennessee a year ago in the SEC Indoor. He is joined by teammates Rojé Stona and Ralford Mullings. They currently rank 2-5-8 in the league this indoor season.

While Arkansas is the world leader in the 4 x 400 relay and ranks second in the SEC in the distance medley as well as ninth in the nation, the line-ups this weekend may differ from the Razorbacks who were part of the pair of school record efforts.

“The relay personnel will be different from what we ran last week, same with the 4 x 400,” said Bucknam. “It’s the same with the other schools too. We’re all trying to manage athletes doubling and tripling.

“There’s a lot of teams here that are going to make noise at the NCAA Championships, so everybody is kind of playing the long game a little bit and not over-working two or three athletes and try to spread the talent out.”

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