No. 3 Razorbacks post 1-2-3 sweep in winning region title
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – A 1-2-3 Razorback sweep, led by individual winner Kirami Yego, propelled No. 3 Arkansas to a convincing team victory in the South Central Region on Friday morning on Texas A&M’s Watts course.
A total of 33 Razorback points earned the win over 76 for Tulane and 84 by Texas. The Razorbacks and Tulane earned the pair of automatic berths into next week’s NCAA Championships in Madison, Wisconsin, on Saturday, November 23.
For Arkansas this will be the 54th trip as a team to the NCAA Championships in cross country, which includes 50 visits in the past 51 years. For Tulane, it marks their first journey as a team to the national championship meet since 1998.
“From a team standpoint I’m very pleased with how we ran,” said Arkansas men’s head coach Chris Bucknam. “We took care of business. It’s good to get the win, and it’s great we went 1-2-3.
“In our business nothing is easy, even if it looks that way. We had to put the uniforms on and run. I thought our guys did a great job of staying under control and staying within themselves.”
Yego won the race in 29:09.4 over a 10,000m distance as teammates Timothy Chesondin and Patrick Kiprop placed second and third. Chesondin clocked 29:11.4 while two-time defending champion Kiprop posted a time of 29:11.8.
“I’m really pleased with Timothy,” noted Bucknam. “He did a great job and hung around with our top two guys. I thought that was a big breakthrough race for him.”
Yego added: “We wanted to race some guys while also resting some guys for the NCAA Championships. At 8k, we knew we were going to finish 1-2-3, so Patrick and I were trying to get Tim ready for nationals. In the NCAA Championship, the 8k is where the race really starts, so we wanted to prep him for that next week.
“We want to win next week as a team while Patrick and I are also going for the individual title. But the main goal is trying to win a national team title, since the last one for Arkansas was in 2000. We have a good shot this year, so we have to take advantage of the opportunity.”
Isaac Alonzo of Texas finished in fourth (29:12.9) while Tulane had a pair of runners place fifth and sixth with Jack Jennings (29:21.1) and Bernard Cheruiyot (29:23.3).
A group of eight runners were in the lead pack at the 6.3k split with Yego in the lead at 18:03.0. Then by the 7.7k split, the Razorback trio broke away by four-plus seconds with Yego leading at 22:17.9.
Following the 1-2-3 UA effort, the Razorbacks also placed 13-14-15 in adjusted scoring with the trio of Elias Schreml, Brian Masai, and Tommy Romanow, who all earned All-Region honors.
Schreml posted a time of 29:51.1 with Masai at 29:52.4 and Romanow following in 29:54.2. The seventh runner for Arkansas was Davis Helmerich (81st | 31:52.1).
Additional team scoring among the top 10 teams after the top three schools included Texas A&M (127), Incarnate Word (163), TCU (238), Stephen F. Austin (254), Sam Houston (254), Tarleton State (267), and Arkansas State (282).
