Isabel Van Camp finishes 10th in Nuttycombe Invitational

MADISON, Wisc. – Razorback junior Isabel Van Camp continued her stretch of impressive cross country performances on Friday as she placed 10th with a time of 20 minutes, 6.3 seconds over a 6,000m course at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational.

Placing 10th in a loaded field of 36 teams, which included 25 nationally ranked top 30 programs, offers Van Camp a glimpse of how things may go for the three-time All-America when a majority of these teams reconvene for the national championships in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in over a month from now.

“It was an outstanding race for Isabel, she’s running with the people she needs to run with for the national meet,” said Arkansas women’s head coach Lance Harter. “I thought that was a real nice indicator to meet her goals this year.

“After the SEC meet, when we see Alabama, we will have seen everybody. She has put herself in the position to be in the conversation to be one of the top 10 or 15 finishers in the national meet.”

In team scoring, No. 14 Arkansas placed 19th with 533 points off an adjusted scoring finish of 10-78-80-175-190.

There was a tie for first-place team honors between No. 1 North Carolina State and No. 2 New Mexico with 80 points apiece. NC State claimed the tiebreaker with a 3-2 edge in the first, second, and fourth finishes among the two teams.

NC State had a 1-2 finish from Katelyn Tuohy (19:44.3) and Kelsey Chmiel (19:49.4) while Elise Stearns (19:57.5) of Northern Arizona placed third. Only six seconds separated finishers fourth through 11th.

Teams finishing among the top 10 included No. 4 Northern Arizona third with 244 points, No. 5 BYU fourth at 252, and No. 10 Notre Dame fifth with 257. The next five squads included No. 11 North Carolina (280), No. 8 Stanford (285), No. 12 Utah (303), No. 7 Colorado (306), and No. 13 Georgetown (310).

The next batch of teams placing in the top 20 included: No. 21 Oregon (363), Toledo (500), No. 15 Syracuse (506), No. 28 Wisconsin (506), No. 16 Providence (511), No. 9 Washington (515), No. 22 Colorado State (518), No. 17 Michigan State (530), No. 14 Arkansas (533), and No. 19 Utah Valley (544).

The clocking by Van Camp is the fastest in the SEC this season over 6,000m as she bettered a 20:29.2 set by Ryann Helmers of Ole Miss on her home course back in September. Van Camp also leads the league at the 5,000m distance with her 15:58.0 from a victory at the Chile Pepper Festival.

Van Camp has a career best of 19:54.7 over a 6,000m distance, which she set in earning her first All-America accolade during the 2021 NCAA Championships.

Finishing as the second and third Razorbacks, for the third consecutive race, were freshmen Sydney Thorvaldson and Mia Cochran. They produced the fastest pair of freshmen times this season among SEC runners with a 20:43.6 by Thorvaldson to place 78th and a 20:45.9 by Cochran to place 80th.

“I thought Sydney and Mia ran really well considering this was their first exposure to this type of a race,” noted Harter. “When you get passed, you don’t just get passed by four people, you can get passed by 40 people. You either rise to it, or you get overwhelmed.”

The previous best time for a SEC freshman this season was 20:54.0 by Sophie Braumann of Ole Miss back in mid-September.

Thorvaldson improved her previous best over 6k from a 21:13.8 while Cochran lowered her time from a 20:54.5, both of which were previously set on Oklahoma State’s course earlier this season.

Katie McCune (180, 21:26.0) and Taylor Ewert (195, 21:34.7) rounded out the team score positions for Arkansas. Also racing in the Championship division of the race were Gracie Hyde (220, 21:56.4) and Mary Ellen Eudaly (232, 22:02.5).

Representing the Razorbacks in the B race, where Arkansas placed eighth (202 points) among squads fielding five or more runners, were Nyah Hernandez (44, 21:55.6), Heidi Nielson (49, 22:00.4), Julia Paternain (53, 22:04.8), Adoette Vaughan (54, 22:05.3), and Mackenzie Rogers (106, 23:02.2).