FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas track and field coach Chris Bucknam knew his team had the depth to win the Southeastern Conference Outdoor Championships in Baton Rouge, La., last week.
He knew his team had the talent and confidence to get it done, too. But there’s one thing Bucknam didn’t expect when the final score was tallied: his team had amassed 196 points, winning by 78 points over second-place LSU
“That was a little bit of a surprise to me,” Bucknam said. “I didn’t think it was going to be a runaway like that.”
Bucknam took a look back at his team’s dominant performance Tuesday, two days after the Razorbacks ran to the SEC championship. Arkansas claimed eight event titles during the four-day meet, finished with the individual high-point scorer (hurdler Caleb Cross) and, more important, secured the SEC triple crown for the 2011-12 season after winning the SEC cross country title last fall and the SEC Indoor track championship this winter.
The SEC triple crown is the 13th in school history and first under Bucknam. The SEC Outdoor title was the school’s 17th.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
“You get on a roll and everything starts clicking and everybody feels good,” Bucknam said of the success in Baton Rouge. “And credit to my coaches. We are getting to the point where the guys are starting to feel good. “That’s important. So I think it was a combination of, ‘Hey, it’s the SEC meet. This is what we do. This is what we try to do no matter what.’ No. 2 is I think physically they’re starting to feel pretty good.”
Arkansas’ success started early in the decathlon, when Kevin Lazas, Terry Prentice, Gunnar Nixon and Auston Chen finished first, second, third and sixth, respectively. Bucknam said the strong showing set the tone for a meet in which the Razorbacks rolled.
“It can be a discouragement,” Bucknam said. “I know it would be if we were looking at it, being in the hole already like that. It’s kind of like hitting three eagles first round. First few holes of a big tournament, you know?”
He also said Cross’ performance personified his team’s mentality. Arkansas already had the meet well in hand when Cross ran the 400-meter hurdle final. But it didn’t keep Cross from making a late surge to edge Ole Miss’ Carson Blanks in a photo finish to win the crown.
“I’ve said all along that I think our team, we’re not just runners, we’re racers,” Bucknam said. “That’s what Caleb is all about. He raced to the finish. We had the meet won at that point by 50 points. … We would’ve satisfied with second or third, but it wasn’t what he wanted to do. He went ahead and got the win.”
As much as Arkansas enjoyed the week, Bucknam said the goal now is to move past it now.
The Razorbacks are entering the NCAA Championship portion of the season, beginning with next week’s NCAA Regional meet in Austin, Texas. Arkansas is expected to find out exactly how many athletes will be competing in which events sometime tonight. The goal is advancing as many athletes as possible to the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Des Moines, Iowa.
Bucknam hopes the SEC Championship will serve as a springboard to bigger accomplishments.
“It’s a feather in our cap this year,” Bucknam said of wrapping up the SEC triple crown. “It helps a little bit with how our guys carry themselves. That little bit of confidence, that little bit of swagger, whatever you want to call it. We did accomplish something pretty big. That accumulative effect as we go to nationals, I hope it bears some fruit.”