FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — This weekend when University of Arkansas hosts the 2023 Southeastern Conference Indoor Track and Field Championships, student-athletes will be competing on the Lance Harter Track at the Randal Tyson Track Center for the very first time.
University of Arkansas Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Hunter Yurachek announced that the indoor oval at the Razorbacks’ indoor track facility has been named - Lance Harter Track at the Randal Tyson Track Center - in recognition of the extraordinary career of Arkansas women’s cross country and track and field coach Lance Harter.
“For more than three decades, Lance Harter has defined success in women’s track and field at the University of Arkansas, within the Southeastern Conference and throughout the nation,” Yurachek said. “His remarkable coaching career has resulted in six national championships, more than 40 conference championships and countless All-Americans, NCAA champions, Olympians and record holders.
“Along the way he has invested in the lives of the young women he has coached, his staff and all those affiliated with the Razorback women’s track and field program. Coach Harter has left an indelible mark on our program and it is only fitting that his signature will now be affixed to the track at the Randal Tyson Track Center for generations to come.”
The most successful coach in University of Arkansas and SEC women’s cross country and track and field history, Harter is in his 33rd year at the helm of the Razorbacks program. The 2022-23 campaign will be his final season as Arkansas head coach. Longtime assistant and current associate head coach Chris Johnson has been named the next head coach of the Razorback women’s track and field program.
The naming announcement for the track came as part of a retirement celebration held for Coach Harter in advance of the SEC Championships set to begin on Friday. A formal resolution adopting the name change will be considered by the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees at its next scheduled meeting in March.