FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – With 39 colleges and universities present, the ULM men’s cross country team finished ninth and the women 14th at the 25th Annual Chile Pepper Festival on Saturday morning.
The races were pushed back an hour and 15 minutes due to wet conditions.
“The men didn’t run as well as I know they can, but it was a great experience before the conference championships in a few weeks. I know our team is in great shape and much fitter than we showed today,” said ULM cross country coach Karoly Varga.
Even without their strongest performance, the Warhawks finished ahead of several large Division I institutions including LSU, Louisiana Tech, TCU and Oral Roberts.
Freshman Dusan Makevic led the men with an 8K time of 25:56.8. He was closely followed by juniors Silah Chumba and Hillary Kirwa who clocked in at 26:27.8 and 26:32.1, respectively.
ULM entered the competition as the No. 12 ranked team nationally in the South Central Region. The top-ranked team and also No. 6 in the country, Arkansas, won the meet.
On the women’s side, sophomore Pauline Muiruri paced the team for the fourth consecutive race and finished in 20:01.8. Sophomore Rebecca Dark was the second Warhawk to cross the finish line after she posted a personal record of 20:11.6 in the 5K race.
“The course was in tough condition today. It was a little sloppy and slowed us down. Still, most of our women recorded personal bests and I was really pleased with them,” said Varga.
The Warhawks will have one last tune-up race before the Sun Belt Championships on Nov. 2. They will run at the Crimson Classic on Oct. 18.
Men’s Results (8K) – out of 327 runners
59. Dusan Makevic (25:56.8)
93. Silah Chumba (26:27.8)
108. Hillary Kirwa (26:32.1)
160. Vinnie Van Puyvelde (27:15.9)
207. Brent Turner (27:54.7)
235. Jonathan Jeffcoat (28:22.2)
Women’s Results (5K) – out of 318 runners
136. Pauline Muiruri (20:01.8)
150. Rebecca Dark (20:11.6)
192. Anakaren Lopez (20:40.1)
247. Teona Glave (21:31.2)
285. Julie Hinson (22:31.6)