Hog harriers nail perfect score

By UA Media Relations

Posted: September 6, 2009 at 7:40 a.m.

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LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas Razorback men's cross country recorded a perfect score of 15 points at their 2009 season opener, the Arkansas Invitational, Friday night in Fayetteville.

"We just wanted to get the kinks out after training all summer," head coach Chris Bucknam said. "It's good to just put on the uniform. It's our wake-up call that the season has started. We got off to a good start but we have a lot of work ahead of us. We feel confident that we have a strong base group."

Freshman Solomon Haile made the most of his Razorback debut and took the four-mile race win in a time of 19:43.9. He led his teammates to a perfect score of 15 points. The Razorbacks finished all five scorers in the top five and all seven runners in the top 13.

"Today was really good," Haile said. "It's an honor for me [to be wearing an Arkansas uniform] and running for the Razorbacks. We got our top five finishes and that's really good."

Sophomore Eric Fernandez earned a runnerup finish with a time of 20:06.0. Junior captain Lane Boyer earned a bronze finish with a time of 20:21.0. Junior captain Michael Chinchar was fourth with a time of 20:34.5 and redshirt freshman Aaron Hamilton rounded out the scoring five with a time of 20:39.1.

Also competing for the Razorbacks were senior Rio Reina (12th; 21:48.5) and junior Patrick Russell (13th; 21:57.4).

The Razorbacks will compete next at the Missouri Southern Stampede on Sat., Sept. 19 in Joplin, Mo.

Sports, Pages 12 on 09/06/2009

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