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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - No. 2 Arkansas cross country will return to the
friendly confines of Fayetteville's Agri Park this weekend to compete in the
18th annual Chile Pepper Festival. Arkansas will be competing with over 40
Division I and II schools in the 10K race, starting at 9:45 a.m. on
Saturday.
Some of the best Division I and II cross country teams in the
nation will travel to Fayetteville this weekend for the 18th Chile Pepper
Festival. With a mere six weeks left until the NCAA Championships, the Chile
Pepper 10K will be a solid indicator of what is to come at the NCAA meet.
Highlighting the race will be No. 2 Arkansas, No. 11 UTEP, No. 17 Alabama
and Div. II powerhouse No. 3 Abilene Christian.
Scheduled to compete for Arkansas this weekend is Chris Barnicle,
Kenny Cormier, Colin Costello, Shawn Forrest, Tyler Hill, Peter Kosgei,
Daniel LaCava, Scott MacPherson, Jonathan Norris, Adam Perkins, Rio Reina,
Brian Roe and Seth Summerside.
The Razorbacks will face an SEC opponent for the first time this
season when Alabama, LSU, Ole Miss and Mississippi State compete in the
Chile Pepper Festival. Alabama was ranked No. 2 in the SEC preseason coaches
poll. The Crimson Tide currently sit at No. 17 in the USTFCCCA rankings. Ole
Miss sat at No. 7 in the preseason poll, LSU was No. 9 and Mississippi State
sat at No. 10.
Many of the NCAA cross country regions will be represented this
weekend. In the South Central region, No. 2 Arkansas sits at No. 1, Sam
Houston State stands at sixth, Baylor is ranked No. 7, Texas A&M-Corpus
Christi is No. 10 and LSU is 12th.
In the South region, No. 17 Alabama leads the pack at No. 1,
Mississippi State sits at No. 8 and Ole Miss is 11th. Representing the
Mountain region will be No. 11 UTEP, ranked No. 3 in the region, and
Wyoming, No. 9 in the region. Coming from the West region is No. 10
California and No. 13 California-Riverside.
Other ranked teams competing will be Wake Forest, No. 10 in the
Southeast region, and from the Midwest region will be No. 15 Kansas State.
The top-ranked Razorbacks put on a show for the hometown crowd at
the 2005 Chile Pepper Festival when Arkansas' five scorers finished in the
top 16, tallying 57 points and beating tough national competition.
Sixth-ranked Arizona was second with 93 points, No. 11 UTEP was third with
94 and Alabama (No. 31) finished fourth with 98 points.
The Hogs were led by senior All-American Josphat Boit who blazed
to victory on the 10K course in a record time of 28:27. A 4:20 opening mile
helped the Eldoret, Kenya native shatter the old course record of 28:42 that
was held by the late Alabama standout David Kimani in 2002.
Forrest was the next Razorback to cross the finish line. He turned
in a career-best time of 29:12 as the 11th collegiate runner. Cormier
finished in 14th place with a time of 29:32. Summerside posted a solid
performance and came in 15th with a time of 29:33. Hill was close on their
heels in 16th and clocked 29:36. Kosgei was making his cross country debut
as a Razorback and finished in 19th place with a time of 29:47.
Results from the 2006 Chile Pepper Festival can be found at
www.chilepepperfestival.org. For a complete list of this week's USTFCCCA
polls, visit www.ustfccca.org.
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