Razorbacks finish fourth in NCAA Championships, 3rd podium in past 4 years

EARLYSVILLE, Virginia – Scoring 211 points in the NCAA Cross Country Championships earned No. 7 Arkansas a fourth-place podium finish on Saturday at Panorama Farms along with a pair of All-America honors for Patrick Kiprop and Kirami Yego.

No. 2 Oklahoma State ended the recent streak of team titles for No. 1 Northern Arizona as the Cowboys produced 49 points to the total of 71 for the Lumberjacks. No.3 BYU placed third with 196 points. It’s the first team title for OSU since 2012.

This is the third fourth-place finish in the past four years by Arkansas, who placed fourth twice in 2020 and 2021, as well as the fifth time to place among the top five since 2016.

The Razorbacks scoring tally went 7-13-36-72-83 among its five finishers, while two members of the team didn’t finish the 10k race.

Finishing behind Arkansas was No. 17 Iowa State (230), No. 4 North Carolina (249), No. 5 Texas (262), No. 9 Stanford (291), No. 15 Syracuse (299), and No. 5 Wisconsin (330). Tennessee, runner-up to Arkansas in the SEC Championships, finished 26th (556).

Harvard’s Graham Blanks claimed the individual title in a time of 28:37.7, finishing three seconds ahead of New Mexico freshman Habtom Samuel (28:40.7). Stanford’s Ky Robinson placed third in 28:55.7.

Kiprop and Yego repeated All-America performances from a year ago while improving their respective places among a field of 236 finishers. Kiprop clocked 29:07.7 to place seventh while Yego ran 29:17.2 for 13th place.

The finish by Kiprop was the best by a Razorback in the NCAA Championships since Stanley Kebenei placed sixth in consecutive years (2013, 2014). Yego produced the best secondary finish by an Arkansas runner since Peter Kosgei placeed 12th behind Josphat Boit (7th) in 2005.

With the top 40 finishers in the race earning All-America status, Ben Shearer missed the accolade by two places as he finished 42nd in 29:53.8, moving ahead 10 places with a 2:46.6 final 1k to the finish line. Florida State’s David Mullarkey claimed 40th in 29:50.8.

Myles Richter, who has been on a pair of Razorback fourth-place teams at the NCAA Championships, completed the course in 30:27.2 to place 87th overall, and 72nd in team scoring.

Jacob McLeod, the lone entrant in the men’s field who competed in the 2018 NCAA Championships while at Belmont, placed 100th overall and 83rd in team scoring. This marked the third fourth-place team finish for McLeod with the Razorbacks.

Racing for Arkansas, but not finishing in the race, were Elias Schreml and Reuben Reina.