Walker paces team at regionals

WACO, Texas – The University of Arkansas women’s cross country team finished third in the South Central Regional championships in Waco, Texas on Saturday, Nov. 13. The Hogs had a team total of 103 points in the meet to finish behind Texas and Rice.

Miranda Walker ran to a third-place individual finish and posted a 6K time of 20:27.9 to pace the Razorbacks at the Cottonwood Creek Golf Course. Collectively, the Razorbacks finished third with 99 team points.Samantha Learch followed Walker in 18th-place overall. She navigated the 6k course in 21 minutes, 10.2 seconds.

"We would have liked to be in the top two to be an automatic," head coach Lance Harter said. "but now we will be in the pool of individual teams that will try to go in with an at-large berth."

Arkansas third finisher wasStephanie Brownwith a time of 12:12.7. She followed just behind Learch to place 19th. Grace Heymsfield was the fifth Razorback to score in the regional race. She clocked 21:40.9 to finish within the top 50 as well.

"We did what we could do and now it’s just a matter of just holding tight and getting ready for the results on Sunday," Harter said. "This is not an envious position to be in. We just have to hold and pray and hope that everything lines up in our favor. It would be really nice if it did."

Texas took the regional title with 43 points and claiming the second-place individually as well. Rice was second in the South Central Region and picked up the individual title as Nicole Mericle finished the 6k in 20:16.3.

With its third-place finish, Arkansas must await the release of the NCAA Championship at-large selections, to be announced Sunday, Nov. 14.

Download: Regional results_women.pdf