Arkansas sophomore Grace Heymsfield finished sixth in the mile for the Razorbacks in the annual Razorbacks Invitational over the weekend. Photo by Logan Webster.

Already with three automatic qualifiers, Arkansas women’s track coach Lance Harter and his team are hoping to improve on that number when they go to New York this weekend for the 11th annual New Balance Collegiate Invitational.

The Razorbacks stayed ranked No. 3 in the nation after a solid performance in the Razorback Invitational. Arkansas qualified two athletes for nationals in the meet, junior Stephanie Brown in the 800-meters and senior Kristen Gillespie in the mile run.

Senior Tina Sutej made the qualifying mark for a second time and set the seasonal record in the pole vault. Arkansas’ fourth meet of the season will provide an opportunity for more qualifiers.

“We’re looking to get our distance medley and our mile relay qualified (this weekend),” said Harter.

The meet isn’t a team mee and only a limited amount of the players will even make the trip.

“We were originally at 18 plane tickets,” Harter said. “Now we are at 30 tickets, so we have 26 athletes competing.”

With more than 100 teams sending players to compete, the Razorbacks have a great test ready for them in the meet, a good way for the team to prepare for the conference championships and for nationals.

Including Arkansas, four of the top five ranked teams in the nation will be there and seven out of the top 10.

No. 1 Oregon won’t be sending any athletes to the meet, but No. 2 LSU will be. Participants in the Razorback invitational and SEC rivals, LSU will be big competition for the Hogs.

“The sprints are going to be fast,” Harter said. “We have three of the really big teams coming after us.”

Arkansas freshman distance runner Kaitlin Flattmann will make her collegiate debut this weekend.

“Kaitlin will be running her first collegiate indoor event, the 5,000,” said Harter

Flattmann had a successful career in high school at Benton, La., where she was a nine-time Louisiana state champion in Class 4A.

Events start on Friday and will be concluded on Saturday. The meet will be hosted in The Armory, the home of the National Track and Field Hall of Fame.

After this week’s meet, Arkansas has a big meet  scheduled for the Tyson Invitational on Feb. 10-11.