What happened to Arkansas cross country team

McDonnell retired, and the rest of the NCAA got MUCH better

mwh wrote:

McDonnell retired, and the rest of the NCAA got MUCH better

I agree with the 1st part, but take the AU runners from the early 90s would absolutely destroy any team out there in 2019. For you kids who weren't around then; they were the team to beat.

Wrong big guy. They were good in the early '90's but they would not destroy any team out there today.

Their ladies just beat Stanford Junior College and Washington. Looks ok to me.

https://timingmd.net/Results/xc/ISU_9_21_19/wteam.htm

On the ladies side... Taylor Werner won in Terre Haute about an hour ago, and the Razorbacks held off Stanford for the win! The ladies have a chance of simultaneously being the indoor, outdoor, and XC champs! Go Hogs!

Arkansas was great back in the early 90's. After John retired the program didn't have that glamour it once had.

um, no they would not wrote:

Wrong big guy. They were good in the early '90's but they would not destroy any team out there today.

Uuuu,yes they would.

The 90s teams had Tyson Chicken to fund their team.

mwh wrote:

McDonnell retired, and the rest of the NCAA got MUCH better

Anyone see that a Sports Center announcer on Thursday night, after the Tulane game, said" what a night, we have football, Major League Baseball, NCAA Womens Soccer, and the Men's Arkansas Cross Country Team is running at the Battle of Beantown, in Boston". I am not making this up,it was about 10:30pm CST on Thursday night. I tried to see they we're going to do any coverage, but l didn't see anything. And this was the regular Sports Center on ESPN, not some SEC station, or some NCAA program, or something like that.

Not a Razorback wrote:

Arkansas was great back in the early 90's. After John retired the program didn't have that glamour it once had.

It is kind like Bama, after Saban leaves,being happy about getting that sixth, win and qualifying for the Nobody Cares Bowl in football.

Bucknam has to go. The program has been in a steady decline since his arrival, and it's not just because John retired. You can still win big at Arkansas. They just have the wrong guy.

Congrats to the ladies! The key for Harter is to train them so they peak at nationals. Since Amy Yoder and Lillie Kleimann were there, they haven't fared well at nationals.

Time goes on, coaches leave.

They didn't run Gilbert Boit, Matt Young, or Ryan Murphy. That's most likely their top 3. If Preston Cates is their 4th guy he ran decent. Lets not look to deep into this. They probably won't be a top 10 team at nat's, but they will have a solid finish.

yellow14 wrote:

Bucknam has to go. The program has been in a steady decline since his arrival, and it's not just because John retired. You can still win big at Arkansas. They just have the wrong guy.

Congrats to the ladies! The key for Harter is to train them so they peak at nationals. Since Amy Yoder and Lillie Kleimann were there, they haven't fared well at nationals.

How does harter train them? Must be too much Vo2 too early and they peak too soon

They always blow it at Nationals. Plus, I hear Harter is a P.O.S.

Waiting for the inevitable link to the old thread with the 80s-90s razorbacks circle jerk

Can't say I disagree with the Natty performance in XC, but Harter is a great coach - 14 national titles at Cal Poly and now 4 at Arkansas. He's even a better person. Great, personable and hard working - even at pushing 70!

Oh, BTW, I ran for John well before Lance came to Arkansas. And no, I won't boast about the 80's and 90's. Just 1974 when John arrived until 2007 when he retired. Never met a more competitive person in my life. What a privilege!

I think most, if not all, of the members from that team have graduated by now

um, no they would not wrote:

Wrong big guy. They were good in the early '90's but they would not destroy any team out there today.

I agree, they wouldn't be able to beat NAU today, and probably not BYU or Stanford either, their best teams would be in the 3rd-5th range today.

Looking at their roster in the early-mid 90's, specifically 1993, they won cross country with 31 team points.. Very good.

I'm using track times to compare across years, because the track doesn't change, it's still 400 meters and flat.

The guys on their team were a couple 1500 runners Niall Bruton and Jason Bunston who ran 3:37 and 3:41 that year respectively. Then they've got Teddy Mitchell who happened to win a slow 10k at NCAA's, his lifetime PR, which happened after college, was 28:40. Then a couple guys that after college ran around 13:25 for 5k in Europe, couldn't find as many results during college but they weren't nearly as fast as those post-college PR's.

Now look at NAU last year.

Three guys at 3:39 for 1500, one of them got an NCAA title. (Geordie Beamish, Luis Grijalva, Theo Quax)

Three guys sub 13:40 (Tyler Day 13:25, Geordie Beamish 13:31, Luis Grijalva 13:37)

Two guys sub 28:30 10k (Blaise Ferro 28:22, 28:24)

Then Baxter only had cross country, but during his last cross season he had pr's of 13:31/28:10.

So that' s 6 guys on the NAU team last fall that I think are easily better than the guys from the Arkansas team 25 years prior.

And then we can look at BYU the same year, and those track resutls are even better with 4 sub 28:20 guys, and a 5th at 28:36. All of five of them would would be fighting to be the top Arkansas guy 25 years ago.