No. 3 UA eager for championship upgrade from podium finishes

MADISON, Wisconsin – The final meet of the 2024 collegiate cross country season features the No. 3 Razorbacks challenging for a national championship over a 10,000m distance on Wisconsin’s Thomas Zimmer Championship course this Saturday at 10:10 a.m.

Live coverage of the meet will be available on ESPNU starting at 8:30 a.m. (CT). The two-and-a-half hour live telecast will feature, without commercial interruption, the women’s 6k race at 9:20 a.m. (CT) with the men’s 10k race at 10:10 a.m. (CT).

Post championships coverage and ensuing awards ceremonies will be streamed live on ESPN3 and through the ESPN App.

Live results will be available here: https://live.pttiming.com/xc-ptt.html?mid=7388.

Among a field of 31 teams, No. 3 Arkansas is ranked behind No. 1 BYU and No. 2 Oklahoma State. Teams representing the top 10 include Iowa State, New Mexico, Northern Arizona, Wisconsin, Alabama, Stanford, and North Carolina.

The Razorbacks enter the NCAA Championships with four team victories on the season – Chile Pepper Festival, Wisconsin Pre-Nationals, SEC, and NCAA South Central Region.

“We’re just looking forward to getting up there and improving on what we did last year with our fourth-place finish,” said Arkansas men’s head coach Chris Bucknam. “Things have to go your way and you have to hit it right on that day. So, we hope that we can do that.

“The key is that every one of our seven athletes who are competing are ready to go to a dark place between 7 and 9 kilometers. To me, it’s about going to that spot you really haven’t been before physically or emotionally. So, that’s really going to make the difference for us.”

The Razorbacks have earned a podium finish in three of the past four national championship races, placing fourth each time. Arkansas has won 11 NCAA titles in cross country in program history with the last national championship occurring in 2000.

SEC champion Patrick Kiprop and NCAA South Central Region winner Kirami Yego, who both earned All-America honors in the 2022 and 2023 NCAA Cross Country Championships, lead a Razorback squad which also includes previous cross country All-America honors earned by Yaseen Abdalla and Timothy Chesondin.

Kiprop placed seventh a year ago and 24th in 2022 while Yego finished 13th with Arkansas in 2023 and 37th with South Alabama in 2022. Chesondin finished 36th in the 2023 race with Akron while Abdalla placed 33rd competing with Tennessee in 2022 and finished 32nd in 2021 with Texas.

Razorback Ben Shearer just missed the top 40 cutoff for All-America status in placing 42nd a year ago. Two other Razorbacks with experience from the 2023 NCAA Championship race include Elias Schreml and Reuben Reina, who were two of 18 runners among the field of 254 who didn’t finish. In 2022, Schreml finished as the fifth runner for Arkansas.

Each team is limited to seven runners in the NCAA Championships. The Arkansas travel squad also includes Camren Fischer, Davis Helmerich, Brian Masai, Tommy Romanow, and Jack Williams.

“Positioning is really important,” stated Bucknam. “You can’t go there too soon, and you can’t go there too late. We’ve got to time it up right. We’ve got a talented team and we match up good with the other programs. It’s just a question if all five or seven of our guys do that.”

Oklahoma State is the defending NCAA team champion, having won the 2023 meet in Virginia over Northern Arizona, BYU, Arkansas, and Iowa State.

In conference meets this season Arkansas defeated Alabama (38-52) for the SEC championship while BYU defeated OSU (41-52) for the Big 12 title with Iowa State (62) third.

During the recent region weekend, the Razorbacks topped Tulane and Texas (33-76-84) in the South Central Region. Oklahoma State defeated Iowa State (25-43) in the Midwest Region while BYU bettered New Mexico and Northern Arizona (52-61-71) in the Mountain Region.

Weather for Madison this weekend has temperatures forecasted in the low to mid-30s with a wind chill during the time of the race. When the 2018 NCAA meet was held on the Zimmer course located in Verona, Wisconsin, the temps were in the low 30s with snow on the ground.

“We’re not really worried about the weather, it’s only an issue if you make it one,” noted Bucknam. “It’s not really a topic of conversation. We know the best team is going to win if you take that off the table.”

NCAA Championships | Previous results

NCAA Champions | Arkansas Individuals

NCAA Championships | Arkansas Podium Team Finish (23)