Arkansas Razorbacks men’s cross country team, ranked No. 10 by Flotrack and No. 19 in the USTFCCCA coaches poll, will begin its 2025 season at home during the 37th annual Chile Pepper Festival. The event will take place at Agri Park in Fayetteville, where the Razorbacks will compete in an 8,000-meter race scheduled for 10:25 a.m. as part of the McDonnell Memorial.
Live streaming of the meet is available through a subscription with runnerspace.com, while live results can be accessed via Flash Results.
Head coach Chris Bucknam, now in his 18th season with Arkansas, commented on the team’s preparation: “We’ve got some work to do. Luckily, it’s five weeks away from the SEC Championships. The kids have been working real hard, and we’ve been in training six to seven weeks now. Tough training in the afternoon, I like to train in the heat. The guys have responded well and worked hard.”
Bucknam noted that team members come from a range of backgrounds: “We have a ways to go. With the variety of events that we have guys in we have some 10k guys, some 3k steeple guys, and some true 1,500m runners. It’s going to take the full two-and-half months to get everybody on the same page. We’re not there yet.”
This year’s men’s collegiate competition features athletes from 56 schools. Among them are Division II teams Northwest Missouri (No. 9) and Missouri Southern (No. 28), as well as NJCAA programs Iowa Central (No. 3), Crowder (Mo.) (No. 6), Garden City (Kan.) (No. 12), and Cloud County (Kan.) (No. 23). Division I teams ranked regionally include Texas (No. 5), Stephen F. Austin (No. 6), UT Arlington (No. 12), and Abilene Christian (No. 14).
Coach Bucknam identified key contributors for Arkansas this season: “Brian Masai, Tim Chesondin, and Ben Shearer are our top three guys,” he said. “They’ve been great leaders and have been working hard.”
He also introduced new team members: “We have a couple new guys in Owan Logorodi and James Sankei. They’re two great kids who have arrived on campus from Kenya. They’re making their adjustments, learning the language and lingo, as well as their routine. I’m really happy with them, they’re very talented kids.”
“So, we’ll see what happens at Chile Pepper and build from there,” Bucknam added.
Returning athlete Tim Chesondin finished third at last year’s Chile Pepper race with a time of 23:23.6; Brian Masai placed sixth at 23:59.4; Ben Shearer was runner-up in the previous edition with a time of 23:36.6.
