FAYETTEVILLE -- To prepare their teams biggest preparation before their two biggest meets, the Arkansas Razorbacks men's and women's cross country coaches used the top individuals for Saturday's Chile Pepper Festival.
The NCAA Preview, which Coach Chris Bucknam's Razorbacks men run Oct. 17 on the same Louisville, Ky., course that the NCAA Championships will be run, marks the men's next and only meet before they defend their SEC championship Oct. 30 in College Station, Texas.
Ditto for Coach Lance Harter's defending SEC champion Razorbacks women, next running in the nationally esteemed adidas Wisconsin Invitational on Oct. 16 in Madison, Wisc.
So for Chile Pepper, both teams only home meet, Bucknam primed his Razorbacks to compete with the best proven entrant, Tulsa All-American Marc Scott.
Harter also primed his Razorbacks to compete with the best entrant, his own All-American, senior Dominique Scott.
Scott finished sixth among 240-plus at last year's NCAA Cross Country Championships preceding winning two NCAA Indoor championships (3,000 meters and distance medley relay anchor) and NCAA Outdoor 5,000 and 10,000 meter runner-ups.
So in an otherwise weak team field the Razorbacks easily defeated in Chile Pepper's 5,000-meter women's race, Harter told the rest of his Razorbacks just keep up with Scott as best they can.
They couldn't of course. But by chasing her, most, Harter said, ran the best they had run on the UA Agri Park course.
Scott, her cross country debut delayed because her outdoor track season extended internationally into July, clocked 16:07.18.
Freshman Devin Clark came the closest, a 16:28.52 runner-up on her first official race on the course upon which she often trains.
"Our big breakthrough today was Devin Clark," Harter said. "She ran absolutely spectacular, but I thought each of them ran spectacular."
Harter said they must continue improving to stave off the tough SEC challenge he expects from Mississippi State.
Bucknam's nationally No. 15 men beat, 24-60 a Tulsa team that placed ahead of Arkansas at last year's NCAA Championships primarily because Marc Scott finished 14th.
Individually for 8,000-meters at Chile Pepper, the Razorbacks couldn't beat Scott or runner-up junior college superstar Andrew Rohan of Iowa Western Community College, but Razorbacks Alex George, Frankline Tonui, and Christian Heymsfield, joined them quickly third through fifth. Scorers Austen Dalquist and Jack Bruce and sixth-man Gabe Gonzalez placed 11th through 13th.
Bucknam trained all of them hard through Chile Pepper. He won't let up until tapering by SEC week for No. 13 Ole Miss, the SEC favorite.
"We follow the Arkansas model," Bucknam said of what retired Coach John McDonnell instilled. "It's not how well you run at the beginning of the season, it's how well you run at the end."
For hard-luck, but healing fourth-year junior Heymsfield of Elkins, things finally went swimmingly without a pool.
"He has had multiple stress fractures," Bucknam said. "So he had spent the majority of his time training in a pool. I'm happy to see him compete like that."
Sports on 10/05/2015