Marble Falls graduate O’Riley joins the Arkansas track team
Collegiate high jumper Kason O’Riley is going home.
That’s how the 2021 Marble Falls High School graduate announced on July 1 that he transferred to the University of Arkansas to join the track and field team after spending one year on the University of Oklahoma squad.
“They’re the best team in the country,” he said of the Razorbacks. “We have a great team. We brought in a group of long jumpers and triple jumpers to come in and help fill events. I feel like we’ll be a great team and definitely become a contender to win a national title. I’m going to a team that has 47 national titles, the most in college history.”
The former Mustang will be coached by Travis Geopfert, who is charge of jumpers.
“They have the best high jumping coach in the whole country,” O’Riley said. “He knows the sport very well. He studies the sport, he has countless workouts, he knows which ones won’t work for you, he knows what to do to get you to the next level. We’ll be able to take my career to the peak.”
He entered the transfer portal after his season ended at the NCAA Division I Track and Field championships June 10 where he was one of two true freshmen to compete. It didn’t take long for Arkansas coaches to discover O’Riley intended to move.
“They reached out the first day I was in it in, in less than three hours,” he said. “In high school, I wanted go there there having grown up in Arkansas.”
As for why he transferred, O’Riley wasn’t specific, only adding that he bet on himself.
“We had a couple of things fall through we couldn’t agree on for next season,” he said. “I performed (well) this year. That’s the reason I transferred. I knew there were teams out there that wanted me.”
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