Challenging field awaits Arkansas in Chile Pepper Festival

FAYETTEVILLE – No. 8 Arkansas races at 5:30 p.m. Friday in the 33^rd Chile Pepper Festival over an 8,000m course at Agri Park, competing among a field of 75 teams which includes 11 nationally ranked programs among Division I, Division II and NJCAA schools entered.

“It’s great to be on at home and compete on our home course,” said Arkansas men’s head coach Chris Bucknam. “We will see some great athletes this weekend and looking forward to some great competition. You get in a fast race at Chile Pepper just based on how good you are, not what division you are in.”

A free live stream of the races will be available through runnerspace.com at the following link: Chile Pepper Festival. Live results are available through this link: Chile Pepper Results.

Joining the Razorbacks among the Division I national rankings are No. 12 Tulsa. Among Division II schools, the nationally ranked teams include No. 1 Colorado School of Mines, No. 4 Augustana (South Dakota), No. 8 Alabama-Huntsville, and No. 18 Western Colorado.

Six nationally-ranked junior colleges racing in the Chile Pepper Festival will include No. 1 Iowa Central, No. 3 Iowa Western and No. 5 Cloud County in the 5:30 p.m. race while another set of three schools – No. 13 Ranger, No. 17 Fort Scott, and No. 19 Pratt compete in another race held at 4:15 p.m.

“That’s what makes Chile Pepper special,” noted Bucknam. “It’s not a meet that attracts the teams that a Nuttycombe Invitational at Wisconsin will, but it does bring a lot of variety to Fayetteville. That’s what kind of makes this meet special. You have some great Division II teams and some great junior college teams.”

The squad of Razorbacks racing on Friday include Luke George, Myles Richter, Tommy Romanow, Josh Shearer, and Jayce Turner. Competing unattached are a crew of Arkansas freshmen – Sam Hall, Reuben Reina, Elias Schreml, Ben Shearer and Jack Williams.

“It will be a tough race for us, especially when we don’t have our top six guys in there,” stated Bucknam. “I’m excited to see how these other guys perform and see where we stack up. We’ll certainly get challenged by Colorado School of Mines, the No. 1 Division II team, as well as Iowa Central, the No. 1 junior college team.

“We can’t run unattached athletes on the road, so this happens to be the home meet where we can see where those freshmen are to see if they can make an impact in our top seven. If I feel like they can, then we’ll take the redshirt off them and bring them to Pre-Nationals.”