No. 16 Razorbacks host Chile Pepper Festival at Agri Park
FAYETTEVILLE – No. 16 Arkansas competes in the 38th annual Chile Pepper Festival on Saturday among a field of 68 teams at Agri Park with the men’s McDonnell Memorial 8,000m race starting at 10:25 a.m.
A live stream of the meet will be available through subscription service runnerspace.com. Live results will be available through flashresults.com at this link. Information on schedule, parking and course maps is available at Chile Pepper Festival website.
Arkansas men’s cross country coach Cale Wallace won the high school race at the 2011 Chile Pepper Festival and it led to an official visit with the Razorbacks the following week. Wallace, a senior at Cypress Ranch HS in Houston, Texas, won the 5,000m race in 15:00.5 ahead of four runners from Southlake Carroll HS in Dallas.
“Chile Pepper Festival has a little more meaning for me than maybe most people,” said Wallace. “It starts for me before I became a Razorback and it’s a big reason why I’m a Razorback.
“I won the high school Invitational race in 2011. Then when I was talking to Coach Bucknam after the race he said why don’t you come up for an official visit next week. That’s what really got the ball rolling with me coming here to compete. If I didn’t come here to compete I probably wouldn’t be sitting in this chair right now.”
After opening the season with a team victory at the Gans Creek Classic last week, which included a 1-2 finish for Ernest Cheruiyot and Nick Busienei, Arkansas will not run a full line-up in the Chile Pepper race.
“For us this year it will be a little different,” noted Wallace. “We’ll run a secondary group, if you will, since it’s not necessarily a point of focus for us this year. It’s going to be more of a development and training thing for some of these guys.
“We’ll be out there supporting the event along with Coach Burns and the women’s group. Plus we’ll be out there recruiting, obviously, looking for the next version of myself hopefully.”
The Razorback line-up will feature 1,500m runners on the team – Donovan Bitticks, Owan Logorodi, and Dawson Welch – while Wallace will decide later in the week if Brian Masai, the UA 1,500m school record holder, will open his season this weekend.
Masai was part of a 1-2-4-5 finish by Arkansas at last year’s Chile Pepper Festival, placing runner-up in 23:10.2 behind teammate Timothy Chesondin, who won the race in 22:53.6. That performance led to a team victory over Texas, 40 to 56.
Other Razorbacks who led Arkansas to a team win in the Gans Creek Classic will train through this week in preparation for the Nuttycombe Invitational hosted by Wisconsin on Friday, October, 9.
