Arkansas defends SEC title, claims 29th championship
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – No. 3 Arkansas successfully defended its SEC Cross Country Championship on Friday morning with a 38-point tally as Razorback senior Patrick Kiprop claimed the individual title in an 8,000-meter course record of 21 minutes, 57.1 seconds on Texas A&M’s Watts course.
Arkansas equaled its winning tally of 38 points from 2023 in defeating Alabama, the runner-up for the second consecutive year. Alabama scored 52 points in the 2024 meet after scoring 57 points in 2023.
This marks the 29th SEC cross country team title for Arkansas. It’s the 12th for Arkansas men’s head coach Chris Bucknam in cross country, and his 33rd within the SEC when including indoor and outdoor track and field titles.
“I’m pleased with the end result,” stated Bucknam. “This is a big meet for us. Priority No. 1 is to beat your peers. These teams are our peers and we got it done. I’m really pleased with the effort.”
The winning time by Kiprop bettered the Watts course record of 22:01.4 set by Texas Tech’s Solomon Kipchoge during an October 18th meet this season.
“Patrick and Victor Kiprop of Alabama have been battling it out the past three years,” noted Bucknam. “Patrick knew he has a big kick and he’s a great track athlete just like Patrick. So, he had to put some distance between them in the middle of the race to kind of break his spirit, maybe a little bit and he got that done. He came away with the course record.”
Splits for Kiprop included a leading mark of 5:26.8 at 2k, then 11:24.2 at 4.2k and 15:26.6 at 5.6k. Victor was a stride behind Patrick at the 4.2k and 5.6k splits. At the 7k split, Patrick’s edge expanded to 11-plus seconds.
The Razorbacks placed seven runners among the top 20. Following the record performance by Kiprop, who defeated two-time defending champion Victor Kiprop of Alabama by 10 seconds, were teammates Kirami Yego and Yaseen Abdalla in third and fifth place.
Alabama countered with runners finishing in fourth and sixth place. Among the top three finishers for both schools Arkansas held a 9-12 edge.
Yego covered the course in 22:15.9 while Abdalla posted a time of 22:20.2. Reuben Reina finished fourth for Arkansas and placed 13th overall in 23:01.1 while Ben Shearer completed the Razorbacks team score in placing 16th with a time of 23:05.3.
Timothy Chesodin placed 17th in 23:06.4, Elias Schreml clocked 23:12.7 in 20th, and Brian Masai finished 22nd in 23:18.1. Tommy Romanow placed 34th in 23:35.9.
“Those guys looked good and really sharp,” said Bucknam. “We had some personal victories in there with some individual guys who stepped up.
“I think we’re a pretty good 10k team and this is an 8k race, so hopefully we’re going to really improve in the next three and a half weeks to be ready for NCAAs.”
Finishing behind Arkansas and Alabama, the lone two nationally ranked programs in the SEC, were Ole Miss (122), Texas (152), Missouri (163), Tennessee (169), Auburn (175), Texas A&M (207), Oklahoma (221), Kentucky (230), Georgia (272), Florida (319), Vanderbilt (367), and LSU (396).
Arkansas returns to the Watts course in two weeks for the NCAA South Central Region where the men will race over a 10k distance with the top two teams earning an automatic bid for the NCAA Championships.
