Arkansas Coaches Recognized For Successful Season
NEW ORLEANS – For the second-consecutive year, the USTFCCCA has selected Arkansas women’s track and field head coach Lance Harter and associate head coach Chris Johnson as the NCAA South Central Region Coach and Assistant Coach of the Year, respectively.
In addition to Harter and Johnson, redshirt junior heptathlete Taliyah Brooks has been named the NCAA South Central Region Field Athlete of the Year. The USTFCCCA announced the Division I regional honorees on Sunday afternoon in advance of the upcoming 2017 NCAA Outdoor Championships, slated to begin on Wednesday, June 7.
New Year, Continued Success
Since his arrival in Fayetteville in 1990, Harter’s Hogs have been a force to be reckoned with during the cross country, indoor and outdoor seasons. This year mark the fourth time in a row that he has been tabbed as the South Central Region’s top coach for the outdoor season.
Harter recently guided the Razorbacks to their 10th-consecutive Southeastern Conference title and third consecutive league Triple Crown. His team followed their exceptional SEC performance with a phenomenal outing at the NCAA West Preliminary Round, which produced 17 final site NCAA qualifiers. Of the 17 qualifiers on Harter’s squad, three are freshmen, including 5,000-meter pair Abby Gray and Taylor Werner. Harter also developed two of the top middle distance runners in the country in Oregon transfers Therese Haiss and Nikki Hiltz.
The Big 1-0
Currently in his fifth season with the Razorbacks, Johnson’s event group has been instrumental in Arkansas’ capture of two national titles and a multitude of conference crowns. The 2017 regional award is the 10th for the sprints, hurdles and combined events specialist.
With several of his top athletes graduating in 2016, Johnson never missed a beat in transitioning his younger runners to leadership roles. Senior sprinter Daina Harper was quick to fill the void of U.S. Olympian Taylor Ellis-Watson, emerging as the No. 1 quarter-miler in the SEC and No. 5 quarter-miler in the NCAA. Johnson also continued to develop his elite group of multis, producing two 6,000-point scorers in Brooks and Payton Stumbaugh as well as guiding Leigha Brown and Kelsey Herman into the NCAA top eight.
Along with the 400 and multis, Johnson managed to make Arkansas relevant in the short sprints through 100-meter NCAA qualifiers freshman Jada Baylark and sophomore Kiara Parker. Prior to this season, the Razorbacks had never qualified two student-athletes for nationals in the 100 meters in the same season. In total, 10 of Arkansas’ 17 final site qualifiers, including both relays, hail from Johnson’s group.
Records on Records on Records
This is the first regional award for Razorback Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) president and All-American heptathlete Brooks. Currently in her third season competing for Arkansas, Brooks set three program records during the 2017 outdoor season, including the long jump (6.40m/21-0), heptathlon (6,099 points) and 4-x-100-meter relay (43.57). She heads into the NCAA meet this week ranked No. 2 in the country in the heptathlon, second only to conference rival Kendell Williams of Georgia.
Arkansas will open up competition at the outdoor national meet with the 4-x-100 relay semifinal on Thursday, June 8 at 6:30 p.m. CT.
For more information on Arkansas track and field including in-meet updates, follow @RazorbackTF on Twitter.
