FAYETTEVILLE – No. 3 Arkansas travels to Stillwater, Oklahoma, for a 5,000m race at 8:15 a.m. on Friday morning in a competition that includes defending national champion Oklahoma State, ranked No. 1 in the USTFCCCA preseason poll, along with No. 28 Tulsa.
“We have the makings of a really good team,” said Arkansas men’s head coach Chris Bucknam, who is starting his 17th season with the Razorbacks. “The early polls are predictions without any meet results yet. Those meet results for us won’t get going until the end of September when we run Chile Pepper and in October with the Pre-Nationals meet.
“We have to do our due diligence, get them in shape, and stay healthy. We’ll see how this team jells and how hard they work. That makes a big difference for the end result. The jury is still out with our team even though we have a good national ranking. We’re a contender for both championship meets, and that’s what you want starting at the beginning of the season. We’ll see what we can do with it.”
While the trio of nationally ranked programs in this meet will not feature their top end talent, each squad will display the depth they each have on their respective teams. The field also includes Oklahoma and Texas A&M.
Live results from the Oklahoma State Cowboy Preview will be available here: https://live.reddirtrunning.com/meets/39682
“For the most part we’ll hold out our top runners,” noted Bucknam. “We just started school last week. We have a very competitive schedule at the end of the year. In the past I’ve used the analogy of a pitch count with our good athletes and they’re the ones who really go to the well.
“We have nothing to prove this weekend, except maybe run some young guys, get them in a uniform, and let them taste what it’s like to be a Razorback. With the team we put out there, we’re going to try to win.”
Newcomers to the Razorback program includes transfers in Yaseen Abdablla, who earned cross country All-America honors at Texas and Tennessee, as well as a pair of Kenyans in Timothy Chesondin and Brian Masai from Akron.
They are joined by additional transfers in Camren Fischer from Princeton, Davis Helmrich of Missouri, and Dawson Welch from Tennessee. Fischer competed at Fayetteville HS while Welch competed at Har-Ber HS in Springdale.
Freshmen joining the Arkansas squad this season include Donovan Bitticks (Scottsdale, Arizona), Eli Seavy (Bentonville), and Leo Spitzer (Austin, Texas).
Returning Razorbacks from a squad that won the SEC Championship and placed fourth in the NCAA Championships include Patrick Kiprop and Kirami Yego, who each earned All-America honors in placing seventh and 13th in the national championship meet, along with Ben Shearer, who just missed All-America status in placing 42nd.
Additional members returning from last year’s team include Reuben Reina, Tommy Romanow, Elias Schreml, and Jack Williams.
