No. 3 Men's @RazorbackTF And No. 8 Texas To Face Off In Dual Meet Action

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The reigning SEC Indoor Track Champions and No. 3 Arkansas men’s track and field program will host No. 8 Texas for the Arkansas-Texas Dual Meet on Friday, Jan. 16. The Longhorns and Razorbacks will face each other in 16 events.

The highly-anticipated competition between to the two schools is slated for a 6 p.m. start and will end after the 4×400-meter relays at 9:15 p.m. and 9:25 p.m. The men’s and women’s weight throw will be held Thursday afternoon at 4 p.m. at the Fowler Family Baseball and Track Training Center.

Last season, the Razorbacks won 12 of 16 events en route to a 102-68 dual victory over Texas. Omar McLeod (2; 200m, 60m hurdle), Neil Braddy (400m), Patrick Rono (800m), Stanley Kebenei (Mile), Solomon Haile (3,000m), Anthony May (High Jump, Triple Jump), Jarrion Lawson (Long Jump) and the 4×400 relay team (Braddy, Travis Southard, Eric Janise, Lawson) and the distance medley relay team (Raymond Joseph, Tomas Squella, Andrew Pisechko, Kebenei) earned all earned first place finishes at last year’s Arkansas-Texas Dual Meet.

The meet will be scored with points awarded to the top four finishers in the individual events with five points going to the winner. Only two individuals per team may score points in an event. Winning relay teams will receive five points with three to the runner-up. Only one relay may score per team as well.

For the latest information on Arkansas men’s track and field, follow @RazorbackTF on Twitter.

UP NEXT
After the Arkansas-Texas Dual, the Razorbacks will then hit the road for their first competition of the season. Arkansas will participate in the Rod McCravy Memorial in Lexington, Ky. on the campus of the University of Kentucky.

LAST TIME OUT | ARKANSAS INVITE
The Razorbacks picked up a trio of wins on the track in the 200M, the 800M and the 4×400 meter relay. Anthony Blakely too first in the 200 meter dash with a time of 21.43, Cale Wallace set a new personal record in the 800 meter run (1:52.18) and the Razorback 4×400 meter relay team of Jarrion Lawson, Omar McLeod, Kenzo Cotton and Marqueze Washington finished in the top spot in 3:11.29.

Arkansas also notched a pair of first place finished in the field events. Junior Ken LaGassey won the men’s high jump with a mark of 7-0.25. Senior Andrew Irwin had strong showing in the men’s pole vault. His mark of 18-1 gave him the pole vault title.

SEC WEEKLY HONOR
Two-time NCAA pole vault champion Andrew Irwin has been named Southeastern Conference Field Athlete of the Week the conference office announced Tuesday, Jan. 13. This marks the fifth time in his career that Irwin has earned a SEC weekly honor (2 – indoor; 3 – outdoor).

The senior turned in a strong showing in his opening pole vault competition of the 2015 season at the Arkansas Invitational (Friday, Jan. 9). Irwin captured the pole vault event with a winning mark of 18-1, which currently ranks as the second-best men’s pole vault mark in the nation this season.

USTFCCCA PRESEASON RANKINGS
For the fourth season in a row, the Arkansas men’s track and field program will begin the season ranked in the preseason top 3, as the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) ranked the Razorbacks No. 3 in its initial computer rankings that were released on Tuesday, Jan. 6.

Three SEC teams are ranked among the nation’s top-four programs on the men’s side, while six SEC teams are ranked in the top-13 nationally. Florida is the preseason No. 1 men’s team, the Razorbacks check in at the No. 3 position Arkansas is No. 3 and Texas A&M is No. 4. LSU checks in at No. 10, while Georgia is No. 11 and Alabama is No. 13. The Florida men won three consecutive NCAA Indoor Championships from 2010-2012 and Arkansas won the indoor national crown in 2013.

BY INVITE ONLY
The USA Track & Field (USATF) and the US Olympic Committee (USOC) invited Arkansas men’s track and field assistant coach Travis Geopfert and junior Jarrion Lawson to participate in a Jumps Initiative Camp at the Chula Vista Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, Calif. In early December 2014.

The USATF Jumps Initiative was designed to help top collegiate horizontal jumps athletes and coaches by identifying physical, biomechanical, and technical components that are related to performance outcomes and injury prevention.

The USATF and the USOC hope that the information received from this camp will help with training design for the 2015 season, plus introduce student-athletes to the range of USATF and USOC sport science resources that will be available to them as a post-collegian.

Lawson’s stellar 2014 indoor/outdoor track season helped him get the invite. He finished 2nd at the Outdoor USA National Championships and won the 2014 NCAA Indoor title after dominating the field with a world-leading 27-6.5 jump, a huge final leap that took him a foot further than his competitors. With his mark, Lawson ranks No. 4 all-time in NCAA history and No. 7 in all-time U.S. history. Lawson’s jump just missed the NCAA Championship meet record of 8.48 set by the legendary Carl Lewis in 1981.

SOLID RECRUITING
Arkansas, the 2013 national champion, is looking to reclaim its spot atop the Division I indoor track & field mountain. The Razorback recruiting class for this season was ranked seventh in the country by Track & Field News.

This is the sixth recruiting class for Bucknam and his staff. The last three signing Arkansas track and field signing classes have ranked inside the top 10 in the nation.

The initial wave of future Razorbacks includes Stephen Mugeche (Blue Springs, Mo./Blue Springs HS), Laquan Nairn (Nassau, Bahamas/St. Johns College HS), Carlton Orange Jr. (Memphis, Tenn./Memphis University HS), Brendon Rivera (Edinburg, Texas/Robert Vela HS), Frankline Tonui (Nakuru, Kenya/Iowa Central Community College) and Joshua Washington Jr. (Woodbridge, Va./Richard Bland College).

A LOOK BACK AT THE 2014 INDOOR SEASON
Head coach Chris Bucknam and his team took the SEC Championship last season, marking the third-consecutive indoor title for the program, and finished second at the 2014 NCAA Division I Indoor Championships in Albuquerque, N.M. The Razorbacks scored 54 points over the two-day national meet, just eight points behind Oregon and 18 points ahead of third-place Florida.

The Razorbacks earned 19 All-American honors last season, highlighted by a pair of national champions in Jarrion Lawson (long jump) and 2014 SEC Freshman Runner of the Year Omar McLeod (60-meter hurdles). Lawson’s NCAA-leading jump of 27-6.5 took down his previous personal record of 26-2.75 (set at the 2014 Tyson Invitational). With his mark, Lawson ranks No. 4 all-time in NCAA history and No. 7 in all-time U.S. history. Lawson’s jump just missed the NCAA Championship meet record of 8.48 set by the legendary Carl Lewis in 1981. He currently ranks No. 2 all-time in Arkansas history. McLeod recorded a top-finishing time of 7.58 in the 60-meter hurdles for the title in his first-ever NCAA Championship. McLeod’s time followed an NCAA-leading performance in the prelims (a school-best 7.57).

At the SEC Indoor Championships, the Razorbacks scored 121 points, earning three individual titles (high jump – Anthony May; long jump – Raymond Higgs; 5000m – Solomon Haile). Arkansas also had five events earn a silver medal (60m hurdles, pole vault, long jump, triple jump and 5000m).

Fayetteville, the “Track Capital of the World”, will be at the center of the track and field universe on the weekend of March 13-14 as the Razorbacks will host the 2015 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships at the Randal Tyson Track Center, the home of the “Fastest Indoor Track in the World”. Since the facility’s opening in 2000, Arkansas and the Randal Tyson Track Center have hosted the event 11 times, including nine straight seasons and 11 of the last 13 championships.

A two-day, all-session ticket to the NCAA Indoor Championships is $40 for reserved seating and $30 for general admission adult ticket.

Season tickets and NCAA all-session passes are available online at HERE, by contacting the Razorback Athletics Ticket Center via phone at (800) 982-HOGS or in person at the Razorback Athletics Ticket Center, located just east of Baum Stadium at 1295 S. Razorback Rd. in Fayetteville.