Razorbacks Track Maintains No. 2 Spot in Rankings

Courtesy University of Arkansas Athletics Department

FAYETTEVILLE – For the second straight week, the University of Arkansas men’s track and field team is the No. 2 team in the country with this week’s release of the USTFCCCA national poll. The Razorbacks are two weeks into their outdoor season with their most recent competition last weekend at the Spring Invitational in Fayetteville and Stanford Invitational in Palo Alto, Calif.

“We split our squad last weekend, starting with our distance runners at the Stanford Invitational,” head coach Chris Bucknam said. “We had some good results. Obviously, we’re happy with Kemoy Campbell’s NCAA-leading time in the 5,000 (meters). He seems to have kept it rolling after the NCAA Championships and looks real good. It’s a top-10 performance on the Arkansas list which is a pretty tough list to make at 5,000.

“Here in Fayetteville, it was good to open up the outdoor facility with a lot of good teams competing. We had a good track meet and got some things accomplished. We’re in that re-booting phase trying to get back up to speed after the indoor season.”

Arkansas is one of a nation-leading seven ranked teams from the Southeastern Conference in this week’s poll, the first of the regular season. The Razorbacks were also ranked No. 2 in the preseason poll released two weeks ago. All seven of the conference’s teams are positioned inside the top 13 and, in addition to Arkansas, the SEC has top-ranked Texas A&M, No. 3 Florida, No. 7 Auburn, No. 10 LSU, No. 11 Mississippi and No. 13 Mississippi State.

In NCAA event rankings, the Razorbacks have five top-10 performances through the first two competitions of the outdoor season. Kemoy Campbell is the national leader at 5,000 meters with his showing last weekend at the Stanford Invitational. Arkansas is also ranked third in the pole vault with Andrew Irwin, fourth at 200 meters with Marek Niit, fifth at 10,000 meters with Solomon Haile and sixth in the 400-meter hurdles with Caleb Cross.

Arkansas hosts the John McDonnell Combined Events this weekend in advance of the April 12-13 John McDonnell Invitational in Fayetteville. The Razorbacks’ home schedule also includes the Arkansas Invitational (April 27) and Arkansas Twilight (May 3).

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