FAYETTEVILLE -- Given some spread out scheduling, Melvin Lister perhaps could win Arkansas a national championship by himself.

Well, he would need a little help from his friends on two relays.

Lister comes into the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships Wednesday through Saturday in Durham, N.C. as the reigning NCAA Indoor long jump and triple jump champion. He is the defending NCAA Outdoor long jump champion with the world's longest long jump, 27-10 1-4, for 2000.

The senior junior college transfer also runs the fastest on the NCAA's fastest 4 x 400 relay team, anchors the Razorbacks' NCAA qualified 4 x 100 relay, has qualified in the 200 meters and would have qualified in the open 400 meter dash and maybe the open 100, too had he run them.

At Arkansas, that's "Conleyesque.''

Mike Conley, already by then an Olympic silver medalist and later a gold medalist, won the long and triple jumps, ran second in the 200-meter dash and ran a leg on the sixth-place 4 x 100 when John McDonnell's Razorbacks won their first NCAA Outdoor in 1985. McDonnell's men now have won nine national Outdoor championships, the last eight consecutively, but Conley still is generally recalled as the track team's consummate athlete.

He's deemed such though former Razorback Erick Walder holds the NCAA long jump record (28-8 in 1994) and won 10 NCAA titles to Conley's nine.

"He is the best combination runner-jumper we've had since Conley,'' McDonnell said of Lister. "Walder did a lot of long and triple but because of his hamstring we didn't run him a lot on relays. Lister is a Conley type. Lean, a good athlete. He can run the 200, the 400. Melvin has got that ability. He really does.''

Even Conley never ran the 400 at Arkansas. Lister clocked 45.4 on his 4 x 400 leg when the Hogs ran a national best 3:03.32 at the SEC Championships earlier this month in Baton Rouge, La.

Melvin's sprint pro potential seems unlimited says UA sprint coach Steve Silvey.

"He could be a top 10 quartermiler in the world and make two times the money that he would just jumping,'' Silvey said. "He's capable of doing that. I think his natural combination is the long jump and 200 or 400. We all know what Carl Lewis did long jumping and running.''

Field events coach Dick Booth and Silvey have waged a little tug of war for Lister's services.

Booth recruited Lister from Butler (Kan.) Junior College as a long and triple jumper so Lister is bypassing both the 200-meter dash and the 4 x 100 at Durham because of scheduling conflicts with the triple jump finals.

"I don't want to do anything to jeopardize Melvin Lister in the triple jump,'' Silvey said, "because that's why he came to Arkansas. I really believes sprinting helps his jumping. Now I'm not going to take credit for Melvin Lister's success as a sprinter. But I don't think I've hurt his jumps."

Lister has a lifetime personal outdoor record 55-10 in the triple jump from the 1999 Texas Relays. The 27-10 1-4 at the 2000 SEC Outdoor is his long jump PR.

The Hog quartet of Pine Bluff hurdler Sam Glover, Lister, senior halfmiler Ryan Stanley and freshman football player Kevin Baker stunning higher rated SEC teams with the nation's fastest 4 x 400 time rivaled Lister's out of this world 27-10 1-4 long jump as the biggest story out of Baton Rouge.