Arkansas Shifts Focus to Chile Pepper Festival

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Coming off back to back competition from California to Missouri the Razorbacks break this weekend to train through to the 27th annual Chile Pepper Festival scheduled to take place on Saturday, Oct. 3.

Through four races (two at UC Riverside) Arkansas has had four different top finishers as their roster features a number of young and talented runners each progressing through every meet.

All four of the number one finishers for the Razorbacks have been underclassman, giving the cross country world a glimpse of the future of the highly revered Arkansas program. Sophomore Kelsey Schrader kicked off the season with a fifth place finish behind four from a nationally ranked Oklahoma State team. The next three races saw three freshman dominate the field as Devin Clark (second) and Claudia Verstraten (first) led the Razorbacks to victories in the 6K and 5K competitions at the UC Riverside Invitational while Sydney Brown (third) paced her teammates to a first-place team finish at the Southern Stampede.

About to embark upon the bottom half of their regular season schedule the Razorbacks will take on some of the nation’s best teams at the Chile Pepper Festival and Wisconsin adidas Invitational. Two-time All-American Dominique Scott earned two out of her four SEC Runner of the Week honors last year with a meet-record performance at the Chile Pepper and a top-eight finish at Wisconsin.

Arkansas remains the highest nationally ranked women’s program in the SEC at No. 10 following Tuesday’s week two USTFCCCA Coaches’ Poll announcement.

For more information on Arkansas track and field including in-meet updates, follow @RazorbackTF on Twitter.