No. 21 Razorbacks have young squad racing in NCAA Championships
STILLWATER, Okla. – The No. 21 Razorbacks will race over a 6,000m distance at 9:20 a.m. on a chilly Saturday morning in the NCAA Championships hosted by Oklahoma State.
Admission is $10 to the meet (https://bit.ly/3EEGTX1) and coverage of the race will be on ESPNU. Live results are available here: https://live.pttiming.com/XC-PTT.html?mid=5234.
“We are going to have to count on three freshmen in the line-up,” noted Arkansas women’s head coach Lance Harter. “It’s not the greatest idea in the world, but reality is reality. The kids who are going to wear the uniform are excited about the opportunity and are ready to go.
“We’ve done everything possible to prep for this championship as far as scheduling and racing to handle the competition as well as the course.”
A challenging course combined with chilly conditions, expected to be in the 20s with the wind chill, may alter who is favored for team and individual honors among the 31 teams and 250-plus runners.
“I think we are realistically capable of being somewhere in the teens,” said Harter. “We definitely want to be under 20, preferably. I think that’s a realistic goal.”
Since winning the 2019 national championship, the first in cross country for the Razorback women, Arkansas placed 10th in 2020 and eighth in 2021. The program has never finished below 19th place, which occurred twice – 2005 and 2016.
An All-America in last year’s race by placing 37th, Isabel Van Camp leads this year’s Razorback squad into the national championship race. Van Camp won the South Central Region title and previously won the Chile Pepper Festival on Arkansas’ home course this season.
In a pair of meets which featured a bulk of the top 30 teams competing in Stillwater this weekend, Van Camp placed 10th at the OSU Jamboree as well as in Wisconsin for the Nuttycombe Invitational.
“Isabel is running absolutely fantastic, and she’s had a phenomenal season thus far,” stated Harter. “In the regional meet she, as well as the rest of the team, was able to kind of cruise through and not go to the well while winning the race. We dominated quite comfortably.
“She’s perfectly set up to have an opportunity to earn an All-America honor again.”
Six Razorbacks claimed All-Region honors for placing among the top 25 in the South Central Region meet. Joining Van Camp were Mia Cochran, Sydney Thorvaldson, Gracie Hyde, Mary Ellen Eudaly, and Taylor Ewert.
Katie McCune did not run in the region meet and will also miss the national championship race due to a leg injury. She will be replaced by Adoette Vaughan.
Five of the seven Razorbacks are competing in their first NCAA Cross Country Championship. They include three freshmen in Cochran, Thorvaldson, and Eudaly along with sophomore Ewert and senior Vaughan.
The top five nationally ranked programs heading into the national championship meet include No. 1 NC State, the defending champions, No. 2 New Mexico, No. 3 Oklahoma State, No. 4 Notre Dame, and No. 5 Alabama.
Alabama and No. 21 Arkansas are the only pair of teams from the SEC in the NCAA Championships. SEC schools with individuals in the race include Florida, Kentucky (2) and Ole Miss.
As the Razorbacks cruised to a team victory in the South Central Region over Texas (49 to 102), Alabama had an equally easy effort in the South Region over Florida State (34 to 88), with Ole Miss placing third and advancing an individual to the national meet.
