Arkansas men back on top of SEC cross country

Arkansas' Emmanuel Cheboson runs during the SEC Preview meet Saturday, Sept. 19, 2020, in Baton Rouge, La.

— The Arkansas men’s cross country team regained a trophy Friday the Razorbacks have held many times before.

Arkansas won the SEC championship with a 5-6-7-8-9 finish in Baton Rouge, La. The Razorbacks scored 35 points, well ahead of second-place Ole Miss’ 59 points.

The Rebels had won the past two SEC titles after Arkansas won eight straight from 2010-17.

"It was huge because we feel like that trophy belongs here," Arkansas coach Chris Bucknam said. "We had a two-year hiatus. Two years ago we kind of gave it to [Ole Miss]. We weren’t a very deep team and we had an athlete drop out, and that cost us the meet.

"Then last year we had to press the reset button. The other years we’d been reloading, but last year we had to rebuild....We did that successfully and got our title back."

Ole Miss had the top three finishers in Friday’s 8,000-meter race, led by Mario Garcia Romo with a time of 23:32.9. Cole Bullock was second and Waleed Suliman was third.

Amon Kemboi led Arkansas with a fifth-place time of 23:47.3. Kemboi was followed by Luke Meade in sixth, Jacob McLeod in seventh, Emmanuel Cheboson in eighth and Matt Young in ninth.

"I’d rather win the meet than go 1-2-3," Bucknam said. "We got the job done.

"We’ve got a strong team. We beat another nationally-ranked team and I’m happy for the win."

Andrew Kibet (14th) and Gilbert Boit (16th) ran for the Razorbacks but did not score.

Arkansas won the SEC cross country championship for the 26th time in 30 seasons. Dating to their days in the Southwest Conference, the Razorbacks have won 43 of the past 47 conference meets in cross country.

Bucknam, who is in his 13th year as Arkansas' coach, won his ninth conference cross country championship and his 22nd SEC title in the three sports he coaches.

Counting indoor and outdoor track and field, the Razorbacks have won 68 SEC championships and 111 conference championships overall.

Bob Holt contributed