FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Invitational begins Friday at Randal Tyson Track Center, featuring athletes from 14 teams and professional competitors in the first of five home meets for the Razorbacks this indoor season.
Competition starts at noon with the men’s shot put, followed by track preliminaries beginning with the women’s 60-meter hurdles at 12:30 p.m. Live streaming coverage will be available on SEC Network + starting at 3 p.m. ET, with live results provided through flashresults.com.
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Teams scheduled to compete include Arkansas, Tennessee, Iowa, Stephen F. Austin, Oral Roberts, North Texas, Central Arkansas, UT Arlington, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Oklahoma City University, Louisiana Tech, Pittsburg State, Southern Mississippi, and Coffeyville (KS) Community College.
Doug Case, in his 18th season with Arkansas and first year as men’s head coach, views the meet as an important early-season evaluation opportunity.
“I’m looking forward to this first meet,” Case said on the Razorbacks’ website. “It will be business as usual, I suspect, with some added responsibilities. I’m ready to get out there and get this thing going.”
Case emphasized the developmental nature of early-season competition for the Razorbacks.
“Much of this meet is exploratory,” Case said. “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.”
Tennessee, which performed well at last weekend’s Clemson Invitational, is expected to provide strong competition across multiple events.
“When you’re talking about competition coming in you look at our schedule this year we have great teams coming in,” Case stated. “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.”
The Randal Tyson Track Center will host the 2026 NCAA Indoor Championships in March. Case credited the facility’s reputation for attracting top-level competition throughout the season.
“That’s due to the great facility we have, the Tyson Center is unbelievable,” Case said. “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.”
