How Tina Sutej came to Arkansas

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http://nwanews.com/nwat/Sports/73354/

Foreign affairs

Tina Sutej wasn't in Arkansas long before she made her name known.

The freshman, a native of Ljubljana, Slovenia, arrived in Fayetteville just prior to the Arkansas Invitational on Jan. 9 and subsequently set an NCAA provisional mark (13-5 1/4) in the pole vault.

Arkansas coach Lance Harter heard of Sutej through UA men's assistant coach Doug Case. Case worked at Northern Iowa with his boss, Bucknam, and the coaching staff had a connection to Slovenia during their tenure at the Missouri Valley school.

With their arrival to the UA last spring, they also brought their knowledge of the region and its rich track and field history.

"Hopefully he'll keep finding more," Harter said.

Sutej is still adjusting to her surroundings - especially to training, Harter said. Her training regime with assistant coach Bryan Compton is a bit different from her upbringing overseas, where Europeans have a tendency to do "lots and lots of vaulting," Harter said.

At Arkansas, Compton's philosophy focuses more on incremental basics, Harter said.

"I think her adaptation has gone really, really well," Harter said. "She enjoys school and she's a very sharp young lady. She really knows what's going on."

No. 11 Arkansas set three NCAA provisional-qualifying marks in the Arkansas Invitational on Jan. 9. Junior Katie Stripling had an automatic mark with a vault of 13-9 1/4.

Sutej's pole vault at the event ranks sixth nationally. She is scheduled to vault Saturday in the Razorback Invitational.