Well-traveled former Tiger where he wants to be at UA

Lexington Hilton figured he’d one day end up as a distance runner for his home state Arkansas Razorbacks.

He just didn’t exactly expect the path from Green Forest High School to Fayetteville — via Magnolia and Jonesboro — to include eligibility battles and a pandemic.

“My original plan was to come here,” Hilton said of being in Fayetteville. “But it was kind of a complicated process, leaving and and because of COVID.

“But, I figured, eventually, I would end my career here.”

While delayed, the beginning of the third leg of what he intends to be the final stop of his collegiate career couldn’t have started any better.

Hilton, who primarily goes by “Lex,” debuted for Arkansas on Jan. 13 and ran a career-best 3:58.70 in the mile at the Arkansas Invitational. A week later, Hilton finished fourth in the 3,000-meter run with another career best time at 7:49.84 in the Razorback Invitational.

The fourth-place performance, where Hilton finished only behind standout runners from BYU and Stanford, moved him to No. 7 on the UA all-time list.

“Lex is kind of an unknown and has been doing a lot of training over the past year,” Arkansas men’s track and field coach Chris Buknam told ArkansasRazorbacks. com before the Razorback Invitational. “The 3,000-meter race is probably going to be an incredibly fast race with the Stanford kids in there.

“I think stick his nose in there and run with the best guys in the country. How it ends we’ll see. He’s been a huge boost to our program.”

After the race, Bucknam said Hilton was “on the fringe of being elite.”

“He works really hard, and I’m really excited for his progress and the future for him,” Bucknam said.

For Hilton, finally seeing his name on the results board at the Randal Tyson Center made the long journey to get to Fayetteville worth it.

“It was super cool,” he said. “It’s like a dream come true being an Arkansas kid and representing this school.”

SAU BEGINNINGS

After helping Green Forest win a cross country state championship, Hilton’s first collegiate stop was Southern Arkansas in Magnolia. While there, Hilton finished runner-up in the 2019 Great American Conference Cross Country Championships.

“Pretty much from the jump I was leading the team and all the practices and didn’t really have much competition,” Hilton said of his time at SAU. “There wasn’t really much for me to gain from being there, so I decided to transfer after that school year.

“That’s when COVID hit, we got sent home and I put my name in the transfer portal.”

Hilton said coaches at SAU weren’t happy with his decision to enter the portal and eventually transfer to Arkansas State.

“My coach wasn’t wanting to release me from my contract, but I ended up getting that resolved and transferred to ASU,” Hilton said.

Hilton said that when transferring from a Division-II school to a Division-I school, an athlete normally has to sit out a year. However, Hilton said coaches at ASU helped him find a loophole that made him immediately eligible.

While with the Red Wolves, Hilton was the 2021 Sun Belt Conference outdoor champion in the 5,000 meters and a silver medalist in indoor 3,000 meters and 5,000 meters. He also set school records in the indoor 5,000- meters (14:17.69), outdoor 5,000 meters (14:10.27) and 10,000 meters (29:20.01) and set multiple career-best times during the 2021 season.

His success in Jonesboro made him want an even bigger challenge, Hilton said.

“Kind of the same thing happened at ASU that happened at SAU where I started leading practices and we weren’t going to competitive enough meets for me to feel satisfied,” he said. “So, I wanted to go somewhere that could really help push me to my potential.

“There’s not a better team than Arkansas to do that.”

Hilton said he opted to enter the transfer portal once again and Bucknam quickly began conversations about bringing the local athlete back to Northwest Arkansas.

“What’s ironic is that when I transferred from Arkansas State to here at UA, ASU had the ability to release me,” Hilton said.

However, because ASU didn’t release Hilton, he was forced to sit out the 2022 indoor, outdoor, and cross-country seasons. He did compete a handful of times as an “unattached” athlete last year, including setting career-best times in five races.

“If you have to sit out a year, you can still compete, but just not for your team,” Hilton said. “So, there’s a couple of races that I won during the indoor season last year, but they didn’t apply to team points because I was racing for myself.”

HAPPY TO BE A HOG

Hilton said he felt an ultimate sense of pride when he donned a Razorback on his uniform Jan. 13 for his first official race in Fayetteville, especially after completing his goal of finishing his mile in under four minutes.

“There’s only a few Arkansans to ever run a sub-4:00 in the mile,” Hilton said. “I wanted to add to that list. Plus, I wanted to get some recognition as someone from a small town.

“It was just really cool, being from Arkansas, wearing the Hog … there was a lot of pride for me. It was a really sweet debut.”

Despite Hilton starting his indoor season running the mile, and then the 3,000 meters, it’s all getting him prepared for longer distance races.

“I wouldn’t consider myself a miler,” he said. “I’m more of a 5K, 10K guy outdoors. I haven’t been able to get into those races but 10Ks don’t start until the outdoor season, and I haven’t really had a chance to get to a good 5K. But a 3K is a good event and I’m trying to qualify for nationals in the 3,000.”

While Hilton is listed as a junior on Arkansas’ roster, he’s actually a senior academically and has two more years of eligibility as an athlete.

“Because of COVID and redshirting and sitting out, I’m a sophomore eligibility-wise,” he said.

That means two more seasons of indoor track, and finally getting to compete in three seasons of outdoor track and cross country.

“I didn’t really start running distance until I was a junior in high school, so I didn’t really even think about doing track until then,” Hilton said. “I fell in love with the sport pretty quick and it’s become a livelihood at this point.

“I just want to see how far it can take me and I guess I’m done when I’m done.”

And when his college trek is finally over, he’s just glad it’ll happen in Fayetteville. So is Bucknam.

“Lex is a great competitor, and he waited a long time to put the Razorback uniform on, maybe longer than he should have waited,” Bucknam said after Hilton’s debut race. “Just really happy for the young man.”