FAYETTEVILLE — The Arkansas men’s track and field team has a little more than a week to regroup before traveling to Virginia Beach, Va., for NCAA indoor championships.

In that time, the Razorbacks will try to put a disappointing result at the SEC indoor championships behind them and go for the even bigger prize.

Arkansas finished second at the conference meet Saturday, ending a streak of five consecutive indoor titles as host Texas A&M won by 5.5 points. The Razorback women won their 11th straight indoor conference championship.

While there were multiple highlights for the men’s team — such as Jordan Anthony’s win in the 60 meters, Patrick Kiprop winning the 3,000 and Reuben Reina placing first in the mile — Arkansas got fewer points that it expected in several other events.

“Like any championship meet, it's kind of like a heavyweight fight,” men’s coach Chris Bucknam said. “You're going to take punches, you're going to get knocked down. You're going to knock the other guy down….We had a lot of guys really step up and do a phenomenal job, and we fell on our faces a couple other places and it cost us the meet.”

There were several places Arkansas could have picked up more points. None of its athletes qualified to the 400 final despite having the second-, third- and fourth-fastest seed times in the field.

Freshman Scottie Vines, the collegiate leader in the high jump with a clearance of 7 feet, 6 inches this season, finished at 6-11 and did not score points.

Vashaun Vascianna, who ran the second-fastest 60 hurdles time in program history (7.52) in the prelims, finished last in 8.49 after what looked like a bad start out of the blocks.

They weren’t the only athletes to leave points on the board.

Bucknam said that of the 27 men the Razorbacks brought to the meet, 17 were competing at their first SEC championship.

“We're disappointed with second place. We just missed winning. We can find 20 points easily,” he said. “The fact that we had 17 kids that never competed in an SEC championship, that was problematic for us. Many of them did a great job, but they just hadn't been in that environment, and we still nearly won.”

The trip was Arkansas’ first road meet of the season. A few distance runners had competed in Boston early in the season, but all of the Razorbacks’ meets were at home. Entering the SEC meet, Bucknam said he would be paying close attention to how his team responded, and that competing at home so often could sometimes make meets feel just like practice.

With hindsight, he said the first road meet being on such a big stage was an issue for his team. In a sport where inches or hundredths of a second can be the difference in winning and losing, approach and routine can be critical. Road meets change the calculus.

“The little things matter,” Bucknam said. “What was your travel like? Did you have issues coming in? Are they rested? Did we get a proper pre-meet in? All that stuff, it matters, and that's the world we live in. It's just getting everybody around us to let them know that all these little things matter.”

Arkansas now must turn its attention to preparing for the NCAA indoor championships, which begin March 14. The men’s team will go for its third NCAA indoor title under Bucknam. The Razorbacks finished second to Texas Tech last year. The women’s team will be seeking its third straight indoor championship and second under second-year coach Chris Johnson.

For Bucknam and his staff, the preparation will be about moving on from disappointment and maximizing every scoring opportunity in Virginia Beach. Bucknam hopes the second-place finish will turn out to be a lesson learned.

“We're all self-evaluating right now,” he said. “All that stuff went wrong, but a lot went right. We just weren't able to pull it off. We’ve got to talk to our guys and get them back in the right headspace and get them ready to go. That's what we're paid to do. …

“We know that nothing's easy. All of our guys on our team know that. The veterans know it's not easy, and then the new guys, all of a sudden [know] that was intense. You just can't go out and have a personal best whenever you want to drum it up. Nothing's easy. So I feel great about our guys.”