No. 23 Razorbacks aim for nationals in regional meet

FAYETTEVILLE – No. 23 Arkansas competes in the NCAA South Central Regional meet this Friday, November 13, on Texas A&M’s Dale Watts course in College Station, Texas, racing over a distance of 6,000m with a 9 a.m. start.

Teams can only race seven athletes in the regional meet. The top two teams from each of the nine regional meets being contested earn automatic qualification to the national championship meet that will be held on Saturday, November 21, in Terre Haute, Indiana. Another 14 teams will be selected at-large to create a field of 32 teams.

Live results will be available at Flash Results. There is no live stream of the regional meet.

“I think we are a pretty heavy favorite to win the region,” said Arkansas women’s cross country coach Marc Burns. “We have to be top two. We know that, we know we need to go out there and kind of establish ourselves early in the race, then protect our spot. I think if we put five in the top 15 to 20 then we’ll be fine.

“The nice thing about this time of the year, we don’t have a ton of depth. Some teams will be 12-deep and they load them up at the SEC meet. We’ve had a good, strong eight runners all year. Now, it’s great, because everybody has to only run seven. We’re back to a level with everyone else.”

College Station has served as host of the South Central Regional six times since 2001 and the Razorbacks have claimed the team title on each occasion. After hosting in 2001, the regional meet returned to Texas A&M in 2015 with the Watts course also serving as host in 2017, 2018, 2022, and 2024.

When the meet was known as District VI, College Station served as host in 1994 and 1995 with Arkansas claiming team titles both years.

Last year, the Razorbacks finished fourth in team scoring which snapped a run of 13 consecutive South Central team titles for Arkansas. Sydney Vaught advanced to the NCAA Championship field as an individual and placed 13th in the national championship race.

Prior to a runner-up regional finish for Vaught a year ago, Arkansas produced the individual winner the previous three years with the following Razorbacks – Isabel Van Camp (2022), Sydney Thorvaldson (2023), and Paityn Noe (2024).

Razorback Isca Chelangat, SEC silver medalist two weeks ago, leads Arkansas into the regional meet. Last season Chelangat won the NCAA Midwest Regional with Oklahoma State, who claimed the team title, and then placed seventh in the NCAA Championships.

“Isca will be considered one of the favorites in just about any race she lines up in,” noted Burns. “She’s prepared for that. I think she also understands the value of either winning or being top two at the regional meet and really saving that deep effort the NCAA meet.

“Certainly her goal is to be up front and to win the race and as well to do it in the most controlled fashion she possibly can. She knows she’s going to have to really dig deep next week. Her goals are big, to be in the top three to five at nationals and there’s a lot of women who want to be in that role next week. She’s going to be saving everything she can for that effort next week.”

Noe placed seventh in the 2024 NCAA Championships after winning the South Central title at Texas A&M.

A young Arkansas squad, which includes four freshmen, enters the meet as the top ranked team in the South Central Region followed by SMU, Tulane, LSU, and Texas A&M.

In last year’s meet Texas A&M claimed the team title with LSU runner-up and Tulane third.

“I think we saw everybody except SMU when we won the Barrios Invitational at Texas A&M, said Burns. “It’s really us, SMU, Tulane, LSU, and Texas A&M as the five teams who have a shot at those top two spots.”

SMU finished 13th in team scoring at the ACC Championships and were led by Rose Mburu, who finished as the fourth individual. Tulane won the American Conference team title over Tulsa (32-56) and were led by individual winner Blezzin Kimutai.

In the SEC Championships, LSU placed 10th with Texas A&M 13th. The top two runners for LSU placed 21st and 22nd in the conference meet while Texas A&M’s top finisher placed 25th.

“Our top eight kids are healthy and ready to go,” stated Burns. “That’s exciting. The only person we might hold out is Jayden, she’s got a little Achilles issue that just popped up recently. So, we want to be really careful with her.

“We’ll run the top seven that we can who are ready to go. We’ll have a good controlled effort.”