FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - The Arkansas women’s cross country team opens the 2014 season on Saturday morning, as they travel to Tulsa, Okla., to compete in the 2014 Hurricane Cross Country Festival. Race time is slated to begin at roughly 8:30 a.m.
The Razorbacks will compete against some of the area’s top teams on Saturday, as the meet will feature Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Wichita State and host-school University of Tulsa.
Head coach Lance Harter will use this meet to give his newcomers a chance to compete, as Arkansas returns a heap of talent from last year’s 2013 squad, including the three runners who finished in the top three spots at last season’s Southeastern Conference Championships.
The women’s cross country team will be sending eight runners to the two-mile race, as Logan Bishop, Kaitlin Flattmann, Samantha Mohler, Valerie Reina, Kelsey Schrader, Regan Ward, Aubree Worden and will represent the Razorbacks.
Bishop, Reina, Schrader, Ward and Worden will all be making their Arkansas cross country debut.
The Razorbacks are coming off an impressive 2013 season, that saw the program win its first SEC cross country title since the 2008 season and finished 15th at the NCAA Championships. The conference title was the 14th overall for the program. Arkansas enters its 25th season under Coach Harter, who was inducted into the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association Hall of Fame earlier in the year.
Arkansas was tabbed as the No. 7 team in the land by the USTFXCCCA preseason poll and received one first-place vote. In other preseason releases, the Razorbacks have been predicted as favorites in the SEC team race and the top-ranked team in the South Central region.
For more information on Arkansas women’s cross country, follow @RazorbackWCC on Twitter.