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Recognizing University of Arkansas Legend, Coach Lance Harter

Floor Speech

Date: Nov. 13, 2023
Location: Washington, DC

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Mr. WOMACK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a legend in University of Arkansas athletics, Coach Lance Harter, the longtime coach of the Arkansas Razorback Women's Track and Cross Country program.

Coach Harter retired this past June after having won seven NCAA championships, including a trifecta in 2019 winning the NCAA indoor, outdoor, and cross-country titles.

Harter's program has been named the Program of the Year twice in 2022 and 2023 by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association.

His career numbers are staggering: Nine National Coach of the Year honors, 45 conference championships, 25 regional championships, 46 SEC Coach of the Year awards, 654 All-Americans, 472 of them first teamers, and 31 Academic All-Americans.

He has represented the United States five times on the international circuit, including the 1992 Summer Games in Barcelona. Team USA head coach in the 1999 World Athletics Outdoor Championships and coached the U.S. women at the 2003 World Athletics Cross-Country Championships in Brussels.

Coach Harter came to Arkansas in 1990 after a very successful 11 years at Division II Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. There he won a Division II record of 14 national championships--8 in cross-country and 6 in track and field. He was a Division II Coach of the Year 10 times.

Arkansas is legendary for its track and field programs. Lance Harter's name and reputation are the epitome of excellence, so much so that the University of Arkansas named the track at the Tyson Center in Fayetteville in his honor, with his signature near the finish line.

Mr. Speaker, it has been an honor for me personally to know Lance Harter. The legacy of this Hall of Fame coach will endure forever in the Razorback nation, and it is a high honor for me to recognize him for his contributions to the sport and to the young ladies he has mentored down through the years. I wish him and his wife, Kim, all the best as he settles into retirement after decades of remarkable accomplishment.

Go Hogs.

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