Lady'Backs look to regain regional title

FAYETTEVILLE – After a two-year hiatus, the 19th-rankedUniversity of Arkansas Lady Razorback cross country team is hoping to regain the NCAA South Central Regional title on Saturday morning when it travels to Waco, Texas, to face teams from Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas in the gatekeeper to the NCAA Championships.

The Lady Razorbacks finished as an 11-point runner-up at the 2004 South Central Regional despite having six athletes among the top 19. Arkansas head coach Lance Harter knows that his squad will have to perform in a similar manner if the Lady Razorbacks hope to take the meet’s top spot.

“This could very easily turn into another dual meet,” Arkansas head coach Lance Harter said. “Baylor is a very strong team with a pair of great front runners. We’ll need to run as a group and place our team before their number three runner and even then we’ll have to see what happens.”

While Arkansas enters the match as the top ranked team at 19th, Baylor is right behind at 20. Rice is also among the nation’s top 30 with a 25th-place ranking. The Lady Razorbacks and Baylor have already raced against each other earlier this season at the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival where the Lady’Backs finished ahead of the Bears by 11 points, 71-82.

The Chile Pepper meet saw freshman Christine Kalmer lead the Lady Razorbacks with a stellar time of 19:56.3 as Arkansas placed five runners among the top 20 with just 24 seconds separating the Lady Razorback scorers. If the Lady Razorbacks hope to reclaim the title which they have won 12 times over the past 23 years, they will likely need the same type of output from their young squad as they received at the Chile Pepper.

For more information about Lady Razorback cross country or about Arkansas women’s athletics, please go to www.ladybacks.com.