Trio of South Central Region honors for Case, Wallace, Taylor

FAYETTEVILLE – Three USTFCCCA South Central Region honors were awarded to the Arkansas men’s program on Thursday. Doug Case earned Men’s Coach of the Year, Cale Wallace collected Men’s Assistant Coach of the Year, and Tyrice Taylor was selected as Men’s Track Athlete of the Year.

The No. 1 Razorbacks completed a sweep of SEC and NCAA team titles this indoor season, totaling 113.2 points in conference and 73.5 points in the national championship meet. Arkansas dominated both meets, claiming the SEC title by 46.2 points and the NCAA Indoor Championship by 33.5 points.

Case achieved the indoor title sweep in his first year as head coach after 17 years as an assistant with the Razorbacks. This marked the 28th SEC Indoor title for Arkansas along with the 22nd NCAA Indoor title and 43rd overall NCAA Championship for the men’s program.

The Razorbacks had a national-leading 18 entries in 11 events for the NCAA Indoor Championships that were hosted at the Randal Tyson Track Center. Arkansas scored in all 11 events as they produced eight medals (1 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze) and 19 first-team All-America honors for placing among the top eight and scoring in the meet.

Wallace, a Razorback alum, returned to Fayetteville this season after serving as an assistant coach at Iowa State for the past five years.

The Arkansas distance runners supplied 38 points towards the SEC title and 19 points towards the NCAA Indoor championship. The distance medley relay claimed a silver medal at the NCAA Indoor meet while Ernest Cheruiyot scored 11 points in placing fourth in the 3,000m and third in 5,000m.

In the SEC Indoor meet, Arkansas finished 1-2-7 the 3,000m with Brian Masai, Cheruiyot, and Nick Busienei and placed 1-7 in the 5,000m with Busienei and James Sankei. The Razorbacks also claimed a bronze medal in the distance medley relay.

Taylor became the first Razorback to win the 800m at the NCAA Indoor, setting a career best time of 1:46.00 to lead an epic 1-2 finish for Arkansas as roommate Rivaldo Marshall (1:46.12) joined Taylor in celebrating the 18 team points they scored.

It marked just the third time for a NCAA Indoor 1-2 finish in the 800m (Villanova 1968, Texas 2023). Previously a trio of Razorbacks have finished as the silver medalist indoors (Stanley Redwine 1983, Dirk Heinze 2001, and James Hatch 2005).

Earlier during the indoor season, Taylor set a then career best of 1:46.11 to win at the Tyson Invitational. The effort broke the Jamaican national record of 1:46.30 set in 2023, and sparked a week of the national record being broken a total of four times and lowered to 1:44.75.

A bronze medalist in the SEC Indoor 800m with Marshall collecting the silver medal, Taylor earned gold in the 4 x 400m relay as he split 45.95 on the third leg. Taylor also ran the third leg of the distance medley relay (1:46.00 split) as Arkansas broke its school record with a 9:17.30 runner-up performance in the Arkansas Qualifier.