No. 26 Arkansas left the Arturo Barrios Invitational with a team title on Friday morning, using a strong closing stretch over the final part of the 6,000-meter race on the Watts course in College Station.
The Razorbacks totaled 101 points to top a field of 49 teams. Eastern Kentucky was second with 122, followed by Tulane with 136, San Francisco with 158, Adams State with 193, Stephen F. Austin with 215, Texas A&M with 230, LSU with 260, Tulsa with 288 and Cal Poly with 369.
Arkansas women’s cross country coach Marc Burns praised the way his group handled the windy conditions and the back half of the race.
“It was a great effort by the ladies today,” stated Arkansas women’s cross country coach Marc Burns. “I’m really proud with how they battled.
We got buried a little bit in that five spot with Jayden and Marissa early in the race. But they battled throughout the race.
“Isca did a great job kind of controlling the race up front. She had to battle back to get second, so that was really good.
Paityn and Braelyn did a great job running together while Emma was on and off of them the whole race, but she never let go of the rope. It was a really good battle for all of those women and I was really impressed.”
Isca Chelangat led Arkansas with a runner-up finish in 18:46.1. Eastern Kentucky’s Edna Chelulei won in 18:42.2, and teammate Brighter Jepchumba took third in 18:47.6.
Paityn Noe was next for the Razorbacks in 13th at 19:40.5. Braelyn Combe finished 16th in 19:45.4, making her the second-best freshman in the field behind Jepchumba. Emma Chepngetich, another Arkansas freshman, placed 21st in 19:56.3 in her first 6k race and was the third-best freshman overall.
At the 5k mark, Eastern Kentucky held the lead with 97 points, while Arkansas sat second at 120 and Tulane was third with 134. Arkansas kept its top four scoring runners in place over the final kilometer, while Jayden Hill made a major climb after sitting 121st at 2k, 90th at 3k, 73rd at 4k and 67th at 5k before finishing 49th.
“Jayden literally went from 121st to 51st, so she passed 70 people,” noted Burns. “That’s incredible. When we get our 5-6-7 runners out in the right spot I really think we’re going to be dangerous as a team.
“We cut it pretty close here, we were chasing the whole way. They never panicked, they just kept passing people.
I like being a second half team and we were second half racers today which is one of the things we talked about on this course. They showed a lot of fight and I really like to see that as a coach and I’m really proud of them.”
Hill finished as Arkansas’ fifth runner in 20:29.4, placing 51st and accounting for 49 team points in adjusted scoring. Marissa Ferebee was 77th in 20:52.0, and Olivia Pielemeier came in 191st in 21:46.1. The women’s race had 403 finishers.
Arkansas now turns to the SEC Championships on Friday, October 30, at Missouri’s Gans Creek course before heading back to Texas A&M’s Watts course for the NCAA South Central Region meet on Friday, November 13.
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