No. 3 Razorbacks set for challenges in NCAA West Preliminary

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The first two rounds of the NCAA Championships take place this week in the NCAA West Preliminary rounds hosted by Texas A&M. The No. 3 Arkansas women compete on Thursday and Saturday with the top 12 finishers in each event qualifying for Eugene, Oregon.

“We have a huge contingent with 32 scoring opportunities,” noted Razorback women’s head coach Lance Harter. “We’d like to have as many of those people qualified to the final in Eugene as possible.”

With 32 entries, Arkansas will compete in 13 events with 28 athletes, which includes both the 4×100 and 4×400 relays.

Live streaming will be available through the ESPN app with the following links.

Live results will be available through this link: https://dt8v5llb2dwhs.cloudfront.net/OutdoorRegionals/2021/West/index.htm

The Razorbacks make a return trip to E.B. Cushing Stadium where they recently claimed the SEC Championship to complete a conference triple crown for the 2020-21 season.

Arkansas was the lone Division I school to complete a men’s and women’s conference triple crown this season. Only two other schools achieved the feat this past year in Division I, the Charlotte men in Conference USA as well as the Arkansas State women in the Sun Belt.

This marked the third time the Razorbacks men and women accomplished a conference triple crown in the same season. The first occurred in 1999-2000 and then again in 2015-16.

With the latest national rating index from USTFCCCA, six teams in the NCAA West rank among the top 10 nationally. Arkansas is the second-best ranked team in the NCAA West behind No. 2 USC and are followed by No. 4 Texas A&M, No. 5 Texas, No. 7 BYU, No. 10 Oregon, No. 12 Texas Tech, No. 15 UCLA, No. 16 Houston, No. 17 Arizona, and No. 19 Colorado.

The longer distance races will have one race in the NCAA West for advancement. The 10,000m will have one race of 48 entrants with the top 12 advancing. In the 5,000m there are two heats with the top five from each heat, plus the next two fastest times, advancing. Three heats of the 3,000m steeplechase will have the top three in each heat, plus the next three fastest times advancing.

“That’s a real serious juggling act as far trying to make sure they get qualified for Eugene, but at the same time have them as comfortable as possible going into the first round of the NCAA,” said Harter of the longer distance races. “The dilemma that we face, because the SEC is so competitive, at times you wouldn’t double some people in conference, but we had to in that respect to try to win the SEC meet.”

In both relays, there is one round of each relay where the top three teams in each of the three heats advance to Oregon along with the next three fastest times.

The Arkansas 4×100 races in the third of three heats from lane two. The top four seeds in the heat include Houston (42.84), Arkansas (43.81), UNLV (43.91), and Oklahoma (44.29).

In the 4×400, the Razorbacks are stationed in lane nine of the first heat. The top four seeds in the heat include Arkansas (3:26.63), UCLA (3:30.16), Kansas (3:32.64), and Houston (3:34.91).

NCAA West Preliminary Round – Arkansas Schedule

Thursday