Razorbacks Reveal 2017 Track Lineup
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The defending NCAA outdoor champion Arkansas women’s track and field team will open its 2017 season on Friday, Jan. 13 with the Arkansas Invitational.
The first of four home indoor competitions at Arkansas’ world-renowned Randal Tyson Track Center, the Arkansas Invitational is set to feature top collegiate action on Friday and morph into one of the most loaded regular season high school meets on Saturday, Jan. 14.
Home Meet Round Up
Originally built by Mondo for the World Championships in Toronto, Canada, the Tyson track first became available for Arkansas athletic use in 2000. Since the opening of the center, Arkansas has hosted eight Southeastern Conference Championships and 13 NCAA Championships at the facility.
In addition to the Arkansas Invitational, the Razorbacks will host three additional meets at their world-class indoor venue including the Razorback Invitational (Jan. 27-28), Tyson Invitational (Feb. 10-11) and Arkansas Qualifier (Feb. 18). All three events will showcase competition of the highest caliber with student-athletes from top nationally-ranked programs battling head-to-head for entry into the NCAA indoor championship.
On the Road (Indoor)
With the 2017 Southeastern Conference Indoor Championship set to be contested in Nashville, Tennessee, this year, head coach Lance Harter will travel his team to Vanderbilt’s newly constructed indoor facility on Jan. 20-21 for the Vanderbilt Invitational.
On Feb. 3-4 the squad will split up, sending groups to the East and West coasts for the Armory Invitational in New York and the New Mexico Invitational in Albuquerque, New Mexico, respectively. A trip to Washington will follow for the Razorbacks as the distance crew will travel to the Husky Invitational on Feb. 10-11. Arkansas’s final away meet of the regular season will feature Notre Dame’s Alex Wilson Invitational on Feb. 18 which historically has featured some of the best distance medley relay performances of the year.
The Razorbacks will wrap up the indoor season with SEC and NCAA championship competitions on Feb. 24-25 and March 10-11, respectively. The 2017 NCAA Indoor Championship will be hosted by Texas A&M in College Station, Texas.
The Great Outdoors
Arkansas’ 2017 outdoor campaign will kick off in Orlando, Florida, at UCF’s Black and Gold Challenge on March 17-18. The Razorbacks will then return home for its home opener at John McDonnell Field in the Arkansas Spring Invitational on March 24-25.
Traveling will resume at the end of March as Arkansas will send two groups out on the road for the Texas Relays and Stanford Invitational (March 30-April 1). The Razorbacks will return to Texas the next weekend for the Baylor Invitational on April 8. Two competitions in California will cap Arkansas’ stead on the road as the distance squad will represent the Razorbacks at the Mt. SAC Relays and Bryan Clay Invitational on April 13-15.
Two more final tune-ups will follow for Arkansas prior to the start of outdoor championship season in the form of the SEC Relays (April 28-29) at LSU and the Arkansas Twilight (May 5).
The 2017 SEC Outdoor Championship will be hosted by South Carolina on May 11-13 and will be Arkansas’ first challenge of the postseason. The Razorbacks will then journey back to Texas once again for the NCAA West Preliminary Round (May 25-27) before completing the collegiate competition season with a national title defense at the 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championship.
Arkansas will cap the year at the USATF Junior and Senior Championships set for June 23-25 in Sacramento, California.
Coach Harter Quotables
“The SEC meet is the highest priority once again during our indoor season as a springboard to the [national] championship part of our season. The Vanderbilt facility is new so we’re looking to go in early and get our technical people comfortable with that facility. Oversize tracks have always been very productive as far as the middle distance and distance crews go so we’re excited about that.”
“As the defending SEC champions [indoor/outdoor] and NCAA champions [outdoor] we know there’s a target on our back and I think we have a lot of returnees who respect that and we have a lot of newcomers who will become familiar with it very quickly.”
“I think one aspect of the University of Arkansas’ coaching philosophy is the ability to be flexible enough to give each and every athlete the optimal opportunity to perform. If that lies in an invitational at LSU, or the Penn or Drake Relays, so be it.”
For more information on Arkansas track and field including in-meet updates, follow @RazorbackTF on Twitter.
