Arkansas excited to race at home in Chile Pepper Festival
FAYETTEVILLE – No. 22 Arkansas races among a field of 32 teams on its home course at Agri Park this Friday afternoon with a start time of 5 p.m. in the McDonnell Memorial 8,000m race.
A total of 70 collegiate teams will race in the 35th Chile Pepper Festival. The earlier Prairie Fire Pepper 8k at 3:45 p.m. includes 38 teams.
Coverage of the Chile Pepper Festival will be available for free on runnerspace.com. The live webcast begins at 3:15 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. on Saturday.
“The weather is great and the recent rain this past weekend has the course looking good,” noted Arkansas men’s head coach Chris Bucknam. “It’s always good to have a nice, fast track out there. It’s always a big deal to run well at home.
“Our kids are excited, and we’ve been training for over a month now without a race. It’s really going to tell me a lot of where we’re at after we race on Friday with our fitness and how we look moving forward.”
Other nationally ranked programs in the men’s McDonnell Memorial race include No. 20 Tulsa as well as four ranked schools from Division II – No. 11 Western Colorado, No. 14 East Central (Okla.), No. 15 Nebraska-Kearney, and No. 30 Missouri Southern.
Teams entered who rank among the top 15 in the Division I South Central Region behind No. 2 Arkansas include No. 5 Incarnate Word, No. 6 Arkansas State, No. 7 Rice, No. 11 UT Arlington, No. 12 TCU, and No. 14 Stephen F. Austin.
The Razorbacks scored 61 points in claiming the team title a year ago over Colby CC (149), Missouri Southern (157), and Iowa Central CC (166).
Patrick Kiprop led the Arkansas crew in placing second with a 23:24.6 clocking. He was followed by freshman Ben Shearer (23:49.0), who finished sixth. Lexington Hilton, who competed unattached, finished third in 23:29.7.
“We have some outstanding kids who could be our No. 1 or No. 2 guys,” noted Bucknam. “Patrick Kiprop has a rich history with us, he’s an All-American on the track and an All-American in cross country.
“Kirami Yego is a transfer in from South Alabama and was an All-America in cross country last year, being a top 40 finisher. He looks good, is highly motivated, and has blended in with the group.
“Lex Hilton will compete in his first cross country race as a Razorback after becoming eligible last January, when he ran a sub four-minute mile as well as one of the top 3,000m times in the nation at that time and then got hurt. I expect him to be one of our top four guys.”
Other returning Razorbacks scheduled to race include Reuben Reina, Myles Richter, Tommy Romanow, Elias Schreml, Ben Shearer, Josh Shearer, and Jack Williams.
