Arkansas Invitational opens home slate for Razorbacks

FAYETTEVILLE – The Razorbacks indoor home season begins Friday, January 16, with the Arkansas Invitational at the Randal Tyson Track Center with 14 teams competing.

This is the first of five home meets for the Razorbacks leading up to the NCAA Indoor Championships that Arkansas will host in March.

Teams scheduled to compete in the Arkansas Invitational include Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Central Arkansas, Coffeyville CC, Iowa, Louisiana Tech, North Texas, Oral Roberts, Pittsburg State, Southern Mississippi, Stephen F Austin, Texas State, Tennessee, and UT Arlington.

The meet will stream live on SEC Network + at this link starting at 2 p.m. (CT). Live results will be available through flashresults.com. Field events begin at noon while track prelim events start at 12:30 p.m. with finals at 2 p.m.

“We have 13 newcomers to the men’s program along with 14 individuals who have scored in an NCAA meet prior to this year,” noted Arkansas men’s head coach Doug Case, who is in his 18th season with the Razorbacks and his first year as head coach. “We have good depth and some good returners.

“I’m looking forward to this first meet. It will be business as usual, I suspect, with some added responsibilities. I’m ready to get out there and get this thing going.”

New additions to the program include Jerome Campbell, a NCAA Indoor silver medalist in the 60m hurdles, along with Ernest Cheruiyot, a NCAA Outdoor bronze medalist in the 10,000m, and Jordan Pierre, a bronze medalist in the 400m at NCAA Outdoor.

Another newcomer is Dapriest Hogans, who was previously a 200m gold and silver medalist as well as 100m bronze medalist on the NCAA Division II level.

Returning Razorback NCAA medalists from 2025 include Rivaldo Marshall, who collected bronze in the 800m at NCAA Outdoor, and Henry Kiner, a bronze medalist in the long jump at NCAA Indoor and NCAA Outdoor meets.

Additional NCAA scorers from last season include Tyrice Taylor in the 800m and Vashaun Vascianna in the 60m hurdles along with personnel on the 4 x 100m and 4 x 400m bronze medal relays.

“Much of this meet is exploratory,” said Case. “We try to find out how the new guys are, how they compete, and how they react in situations. We do a lot of training through these early meets. We’re trying to compete but we’re also trying to be smart and compete at the level we’re at currently.”

The first home meet of the season will include odd distances, such as the 300m, 600m, and 1,000m races, that are not contested in conference or national meets.

“It gives you a chance to run a good race, a hard race, and give an indication of where you are without running the primary race you’ll run the rest of the season,” said Case.

Each of the Razorbacks home meets will build towards the indoor national championship meet with high caliber squads from the SEC and elsewhere visiting the Tyson Track Center.

“When you’re talking about competition coming in you look at our schedule this year we have great teams coming in,” stated Case. “Every weekend you want to have some competition. People want to run at our track and compete in our facility. Every weekend we’ll have quality teams coming in here.

“That’s due to the great facility we have, the Tyson Center is unbelievable. It’s been named the fastest indoor track in the world and I really think it stands up to that. It’s a great place and has a great atmosphere.”