Arkansas among five nationally ranked teams in SEC Championship
COLUMBIA, Missouri – No. 27 Arkansas is one of five nationally ranked women’s teams heading into the 2026 SEC Cross Country Championships hosted by Missouri at Gans Creek Course on Friday, October 30.
The women’s 6,000m race starts at 10:08 a.m. (CT) and will be broadcast on SEC Network. Live results will be available through pttiming.com.
Defending champion Florida is ranked No. 4 and are followed by No. 9 Alabama, No. 11 South Carolina, and No. 17 Missouri.
“I think it’s going to be a really exciting race up front,” said Arkansas women’s cross country coach Marc Burns. “Outside of those top five ranked teams there are some really good individuals from other teams that aren’t ranked.
“Tennessee has a couple of really good individuals, Kentucky has a couple of really good individuals, and Auburn has a good individual. So, I think you’ll see higher point totals than you’ve seen in the past couple of years. If you can dip under 100 points then I think you can be among the top three or four teams. That’s going to be our goal.”
Having claimed a league record 22 SEC cross country titles since joining the conference in 1991, the Razorbacks last team title came in 2021 when the meet was also held at Gans Creek. Arkansas has won the SEC individual title 16 times by 10 Razorbacks, the most recent being Katie Izzo in 2019.
Arkansas sophomore Isca Chelangat will be a challenger for the individual title. She opened the season with a victory at the Gans Creek Classic. She also placed seventh in the 2025 NCAA Championship on the Gans Creek course.
“She’s capable of winning,” said Burns. “It will depend on how the race plays out, how they’re feeling up front and how Isca feels. The big goal for us we need her to be somewhere in the top three. If she can win it, great.
“We’ll need to put a couple more in the top 15, somebody in the top 25, and our fifth runner has to be somewhere in the top 40. If we do that we’ll be under 100 and we’ll be in the mix.”
For the first time this season Arkansas will be at full strength. Gabbie Bishop and Josphine Mwaura return to action after opening the season at the Gans Creek Classic.
“We haven’t run full strength yet and we will be full strength this weekend,” stated Burns. “That’s really exciting. We have Gabbie and Josphine back this weekend. Nobody has seen our full team yet.”
After Chelangat won the 6k race at Gans Creek Classic, Razorback freshman Braelyn Combe won the Chile Pepper Festival 5k on the Agri Park course. Chelangat then finished as runner-up over 6k at the Arturo Barrios Invitational.
Paityn Noe earned bronze at the 2024 SEC cross country meet and finished seventh at the 2024 NCAA Championships. She returned to action this season placing third among the team at Chile Pepper and second among the Arkansas squad at the Barrios Invitational.
“Paityn has trained another couple of weeks and is making progress like crazy,” noted Burns. “Braelyn continues to move forward as well. I think we’re going to be dangerous. We’ll certainly be among the top five, but we want to be better than that.”
The Razorback squad will also include Emma Chepngetich, Jayden Hill, Marissa Ferebee, and Olivia Pielemeier.
