The University of Arkansas women’s and men’s teams had top 25 finishes at the NCAA Cross Country Championships on Saturday in Stillwater, Okla.
The Razorbacks’ women’s team was 21st with 507 points and the men were 23rd with 584.
North Carolina State won the women’s team title with 114 points with New Mexico second with 140.
North Carolina State junior Katelyn Tuohy won the individual title, running the 6,000 meters course in 19 minutes, 27.7 seconds.
It was the final cross country meet for Lance Harter as Arkansas’ women’s coach. He is retiring in June at the end of the outdoor track and field season.
In cross country, Harter led the Razorbacks to the 2019 national championship and 12 top-10 finishes in 34 years.
“As I explained to our young ones, we were 40 points out of 15th place, which would have been the absolute goal, especially with this young group,” Harter said in an Arkansas news release. “To have three freshmen in the lineup is not real smart by the coaches, and then we lost our No. 4 runner [Katie McCune] this week to a leg injury. It just seems a dark cloud followed us the past couple of weeks.
“We were here and finished in the top 25 in the nation, which a lot of people hang their career on. We take it as a situation to build from it as this whole crew is back next year. We’ll look forward to a cross country season with more maturity and experience.”
Junior Isabel Van Camp, who hadn’t finished lower than 10th in any previous races this year, led Arkansas by taking 48th in 20:16.1.
Taking second and third for Arkansas were freshmen Mia Cochran (64th in a time of 20:23.8) and Sydney Thorvaldson (113th in 20:42.9). Sophomore Taylor Ewert (178th in 21:09.4) and junior Gracie Hyde (211th in 21:29.5) also scored for the Razorbacks.
Arkansas State University junior Jaybe Shufelberger, running as an individual, finished 168th in 21:04.3.
Northern Arizona and host Oklahoma State each scored 83 points to lead in the men’s race, but NAU was awarded the championship trophy on a 3-2 tiebreaker based on the top finishers for the Lumberjacks and Cowboys.
Stanford senior Charles Hicks won the individual title, running the 10,000 meters course in 28:43.6.
Sophomore Patrick Kiprop led the Razorbacks, taking 24th in 29:27.1.
“Patrick did a great job, got himself in the race right away,” Arkansas men’s Coach Chris Bucknam said in a news release. “He looked comfortable most of the way. To finish in the top 25 in his first Division I cross country championship is outstanding. He stuck his nose in there and did a phenomenal job for us.”
Arkansas junior Myles Richter finished 139th in 30:37.9.
Also scoring for the Razorbacks were freshman Ben Shearer (155th in 30:37.9), senior Jacob McLeod (175th in 30:47.8) and sophomore Elias Schreml (201st in 31:04.6).
“As far as the team is concerned, we were looking for a top 20 finish, and didn’t quite get there in placing 23rd,” Bucknam said. “I’m proud of this team as far as how they competed.
“They were all dialed in, and we just didn’t have our best race today.”