NCAA CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

Arkansas men finish 10th; UA women 18th

Arkansas' Chris Bucknam was named SEC Cross Country Coach of the Year on Friday.
Arkansas' Chris Bucknam was named SEC Cross Country Coach of the Year on Friday.

— Arkansas men’s cross country team ran to a 10thplace finish Saturday at the NCAA Division I Championships at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky., while Arkansas women finished in 18th place.

Oklahoma State won the men’s title with 72 points, finishing 63 ahead of Wisconsin. Texas Tech’s Kennedy Kithuka won the men’s title in 28 minutes, 31.3 seconds while Arizona’s Stephen Sambu was second in 28:38.6.

Oregon won the women’s title with 114 points, 72 ahead of Providence. Iowa State’s Betsy Saina won in 19:27.9 while Dartmouth’s Abbey D’Agostino was second in 19:28.6.

Leading the way for the Arkansas men was Kemoy Campbell, who finished 17th in 24:41.5 to earn All-America honors on the 10,000-meter course. Arkansas totaled 327 points.

Campbell also was the team’s top runner at the South Central Regional meet last weekend in Fayetteville. In five races this season, he finished no worse than third among Arkansas runners and was at least 17th overall in each competition.

Solomon Haile was the Razorbacks’ second runner to finish, 47th in 30:14.5. Eric Fernandez finished 83rd in 30:36.6.

Arkansas’ scoring lineup was rounded out by Cale Wallace and Layne Nixon. Wallace, the SEC Freshman of the Year, made his debut with a time of 30:57.3 to finish 127th. Nixon ran 31:07.8 for 153rd.

The Arkansas women were led by redshirt sophomore Grace Heymsfield, who finished 55th in 20:25.5. Andrina Schlapfer finished99th in 20:47.9 while Paige Johnson was 114th in 20:52.8. Semehar Tesfaye was 142nd in 21:03.5. Keri Wood was 179th in 21:21.6, Jessica Kamilos was 198th in 21:30.5 and Diane Robinson was 213th in 21:36.6.

Sports, Pages 31 on 11/18/2012

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