Razorbacks maintain No. 1 status, No. 3 in USTFCCCA

Arkansas maintained its No. 1 status in the Boost Treadmills cross country national poll and remained No. 3 in the USTFCCCA coaches poll after a weekend of conference championships in various leagues.

Following the Razorbacks in the Boost Treadmills poll are Northern Arizona, Oklahoma State, Notre Dame and Iowa State among the top five schools. USTFCCCA has Northern Arizona ranked No. 1, followed by BYU, Arkansas, Notre Dame and Tulsa in its top five.

The Razorbacks claimed a third victory this season in winning the SEC title and defeated two-time defending conference champion Mississippi in the process.

Producing a 5-6-7-8-9 finish for 35 points to secure the SEC championship, Arkansas had a trio of first team All-SEC honorees in Amon Kemboi, Luke Meade and Jacob McLeod while second team All-SEC honors were collected by Emmanuel Cheboson, Matt Young and Andrew Kibet.

Kemboi, a three-time All-American in cross country while at Campbell, led the Razorbacks in both meets he contested this fall.

“It’s been exciting racing with the guys, and I’m pleased we had a win as a team,” said Kemboi. “Although I was hoping for an individual championship, I’ll be ready next time to go for that. We’ve been working out together as a group, so we were prepared to finish together in the race. It worked out well, finishing fifth through ninth place was perfect.”

Meade, a grad transfer from Furman, was in the lead pack through a majority of the 5-mile course and turned in his best result in a conference cross country race in finishing sixth overall.

“We’re really happy to bring a title back,” noted Meade. “It’s my first year at Arkansas, so it’s a feeling of rebuilding and doing something special with the team.

“We had a few guys up there at the front the whole race, pushing the pace. We knew we had to go out hard and push it from the gun. Any time we win it’s a good day.”

A conference medalist and All-Region performer at Belmont, McLeod placed seventh in the SEC Championships as the third Razorback.

“I’m still really grateful to be at Arkansas and for Coach Bucknam bringing me in with all the other guys,” said McLeod. “Even as a transfer, I felt like part of the team right away. It was a great opportunity to go out there and take the team title.

“With how things were looking at the beginning of the season, we’re just really thankful that could have a season. Then to come out on top at SECs, that’s just icing on the cake.”

The NCAA Cross Country Championships, normally held in November, were moved to March 15 in Stillwater, Oklahoma, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Wednesday, the NCAA announced criteria for qualifying to the national championship meet.

• Schools will have a declaration window from March 3 at midnight Eastern time until March 5 at 7:59 p.m. Eastern time to be considered for team selections.
• Conference championship performance holds the most weight.
• After the conference championship, a team will be evaluated on its body of work for all competitions, regardless of the time of year they occurred. (This includes teams that do not have a conference championship.)
• Common opponents and head-to-head competition against Division I opponents only will be used when comparing teams.

Men’s National Polls