Razorback runner Sydney Thorvaldson secured first place in the 5,000-meter race at the 37th Chile Pepper Festival held at Agri Park, finishing with a time of 16 minutes and 3 seconds. The Arkansas women’s cross country team placed second overall in team scoring with 106 points.
Texas retained its team title from last year by scoring 56 points. Stephen F. Austin came in third with 110 points, Rice was fourth with 113 points, and Missouri State rounded out the top five with 137 points among the field of 32 teams competing in Harter’s Habanero.
Thorvaldson had previously finished as runner-up in the event’s 2023 edition. She led this year’s race at both the mile split (5:12.8) and the 3.5-kilometer mark (11:32.4), closely followed by teammate Josphine Mwaura who clocked splits of 5:13.0 and 11:33.1 respectively.
“I’m excited to be back racing, it’s been a long break,” said Thorvaldson. “We have a great group of girls and I think we’re going to piece together something special.
“It was kind of daunting, but coach and I talked about it before that if I felt good this is an excellent time to test the fitness and see where I’m at. So, for me not having raced in such a long time, I was curious and I felt good. Once I took the lead it was kind of like, well can’t look back, so keep pushing forward.”
Mwaura finished fourth overall with a time of 16:23.0 while Olivia Pielemeier from Arkansas took fifth place in 16:26.0. UT Arlington’s Dorcas Jepkosgei finished second (16:09.5) and Texas’ Elizabeth Pickett placed third (16:15.4).
Sorcha Shiu and Sanu Jallow-Lockhart also contributed to Arkansas’ team score by placing thirty-fourth and sixty-second respectively in adjusted scoring out of a total field of 269 finishers.
