FAYETTEVILLE — The University of Arkansas women’s and men’s cross country teams, ranked No. 1 and No. 4 nationally, will run at the Blazer Classic today in Meadowbrook, Ala.
It will be the Razorbacks’ final races before the SEC Championships on Oct. 30.
In addition to Arkansas, ranked women’s teams competing today include No. 4 Florida State, No. 5 Ole Miss, No. 11 Kentucky, No. 14 Tennessee and No. 15 Georgia Tech.
The Arkansas women already have won two races against fields with strictly SEC teams.
“We’re going to see some really, really good ACC competition with the likes of Florida State and Georgia Tech,” Arkansas women’s Coach Lance Harter said. “Then we’ll also get to see some of the other SEC teams from the East we haven’t run against yet, so we’ll get to see how they look.
“It’ll be a nice tune-up for what we’re going to see at the SEC meet.”
The women’s 6,000-meter race will start at 7:45 a.m. The men’s 8,000-meter race will start at 8:15 a.m.
Ranked men’s teams in addition to Arkansas are No. 5 Ole Miss, No. 12 Kentucky and No. 13. Tennessee.
In the Razorbacks’ men’s team only other meet this season, they beat Ole Miss at the SEC Preview in Baton Rouge on Sept. 19.
“It’s been a month since we’ve raced, so this will be a good benchmark for us to see where we’re at,” Arkansas men’s Coach Chris Bucknam said. “We’ve had a good month of training. Now we’re going out there to see what kind of race shape we’re in.”