No. 6 Arkansas headlines Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown
Arkansas, nationally ranked No. 6 this week in the NCAA coaches’ poll, competes in the Coast-to-Coast Battle in Beantown hosted by Boston College on Friday afternoon where the Razorbacks will race on an 8,000m course at Franklin Park with a start time of 3:30 p.m. (ET).
“We’ll run our A team, with a couple of guys who are in our top eight or nine who won’t run this weekend but will race at Chile Pepper the following week,” noted Arkansas men’s head coach Chris Bucknam.
Arkansas plans to race a squad of seven runners, which includes Gilbert Boit, Emmanuel Cheboson, Amon Kemboi, Andrew Kibet, Jacob McLeod, Ryan Murphy, and Carter Persyn.
“We will have some good competition there and we will be running against a lot of teams outside of our South Central region,” stated Bucknam. “There is some solid competition with outstanding individuals and good teams.
“Our goal is to try to win the meet, get a benchmark on where we stand race fitness wise and emotionally see where our team’s at.”
Three schools in the field of 22 teams receiving votes this week for the top 30 national poll include Duke, Harvard, and Syracuse.
“In the Northeast region, Syracuse and Harvard are ranked second and third,” said Bucknam. “Syracuse won a national championship a few years ago and are always good. Harvard is another solid program along with Providence.”
Also scheduled to compete in the meet are Albany, Army, Boston University, Brown, Buffalo, Columbia, Connecticut, Dartmouth, Maine, UMass, UMass Lowell, New Hampshire, Northeastern, Providence, Rhode Island, Santa Clara, and Yale.
In addition to the competition the Razorbacks face from other regions, the trip also serves a dual-purpose regarding team bonding.
“Over the years we’ve always done either a Boston or New York trip and alternate them,” noted Bucknam. “It gets our kids out of town in a big city, and usually a place where they haven’t been before. It gets them out of their comfort zone, and they have some time to explore the city after they compete. It serves a lot of good purposes.”
NCAA Coaches’ Poll | Week 2 – Sept. 21, 2021
1. Northern Arizona; 2. Notre Dame; 3. tie, BYU & Stanford; 5. Oklahoma State; 6. Arkansas; 7. Oregon; 8. Colorado; 9. Butler; 10. Iowa State; 11. Tulsa; 12. Iona; 13. Washington; 14. Wisconsin; 15. tie, Alabama & Wake Forest; 17. Utah State; 18. Furman; 19. Portland; 20. Ole Miss; 21. Texas; 22. Villanova; 23. North Carolina; 24. Michigan; 25. Gonzaga; 26. Michigan State; 27. Indiana; 28. Purdue; 29. Florida State; 30. Weber State.
Regional rankings among the Boston College field:
Northeast | 2. Syracuse, 3. Harvard, 4. UMass Lowell, 5. Providence, 7. Northeastern, 8. Columbia, 11. Dartmouth, 13. Army, 14. Buffalo, and 15. Yale.
South Central | 1. Arkansas
Southeast | 4. Duke
West | 10. Santa Clara
