Young Razorback squad ready for Chile Pepper experience
FAYETTEVILLE – No. 20 Arkansas competes over a 5,000m distance at Agri Park on Friday with a 4:30 p.m. start time among a field of 35 teams in the Harter’s Habanero race in the Chile Pepper Festival.
A total of 70 teams will race in the 35th annual Chile Pepper Festival. The earlier Prairie Fire Pepper 5k at 3:15 p.m. also includes 35 teams.
Coverage of the Chile Pepper Festival will be available for free on runnerspace.com. The live webcast begins at 3:15 p.m. on Friday and 9 a.m. on Saturday.
“This is Chile Pepper and it’s something special,” stated Arkansas women’s head coach Chris Johnson. “Everybody who knows distance in Northwest Arkansas, or the state of Arkansas, understands what the Chile Pepper Festival means to the community and the University of Arkansas.
“I’m very excited, and I think we have a formidable team. Megan Elliott has done a fantastic job in getting the young ladies ready. They do understand what this means, we’ll go out there and have a great performance.”
Nationally ranked programs from Division II in the race with the Razorbacks include No. 6 Western Colorado and No. 23 Missouri Southern.
Teams entered who rank among the top 15 in the Division I South Central Region behind No. 1 Arkansas include No. 6 SMU, No. 7 UT Arlington, No. 8 TCU, and No. 15 Central Arkansas.
“It’s exciting, our first home meet as a head coach,” noted Johnson. “When you think about Chile Pepper, you think about Coach McDonnell and the legacy he has left for this program as well as Coach Harter on the women’s side. It’s big shoes to fill, but never-the-less very exciting.”
The Razorbacks claimed the team title a year ago with 27 points as Southern Miss (123) and Dallas Baptist (130) finished second and third with Oklahoma (152) placing fourth.
Arkansas was led by Isabel Van Camp, who won the race in 15:58.0, while a pair of freshmen finished fourth and sixth with Sydney Thorvaldson (16:32.0) and Mia Cochran (16:36.7). A third freshman among the Razorback top five included Mary Ellen Eudaly (16:58.0) placing 14th.
More youth has been added this season, which includes the Razorbacks who had a redshirt season last year along with talented newcomers and transfers joining the squad.
“Youth is always good when they’re taking care of business,” said Johnson. “They’re growing and maturing. They’re not a very seasoned team since they’re young, but the expectations are the same.
“We want to go out, compete and win. Meagan has them in a really good position to do that. Obviously, they have to stick together, run in a tight group, and get after it.”
Arkansas has a crew of 14 runners scheduled to race in the Chile Pepper Festival with half of the group making their debut in a Razorback home cross country meet.
“We will run our whole crew on Friday,” said Elliott. “We’re a young group with a lot of freshmen and sophomores, while one senior on our squad will run.
“Sydney Thorvaldson will be up front for us with Paityn Noe, who is a new freshman out of Iowa. Those are our leaders along with Mary Ellen Eudaly, Mia Cochran and Laura Taborda in our lead group.”
The rest of the Razorback squad competing includes Kaylie Cox, Chachi Gonzales, Nyah Hernandez, Audrey Hill, Camryn Kirkland, Tiana LoStracco, Heidi Nielson, Olivia Pielemeier, and Mackenzie Rogers.
