NEW ORLEANS – Despite winning the 26th Annual Chile Pepper Festival last Saturday, the Arkansas men’s cross country team made no movement in this week’s United States Track and Field/Cross Country Coaches Association Top 30 poll, as they remained at No. 17.
The Razorbacks received 169 votes in week four of the USTFCCCA Top 30 Poll to maintain their No. 17 ranking from a week ago. This week marks the 21st straight poll that Arkansas has been featured in the Top 30.
Defending NCAA Champion Colorado claimed the top spot for the fifth straight poll, as they have now occupied theNo. 1-ranking every week in the 2014 season. Oregon moved up one spot to No. 2, while Northern Arizona dropped down to third. Oklahoma State remained at No. 4 for the fifth straight poll and Portland rounded out the USTFCCCA Top Five for the second consecutive week.
Last weekend, the No. 17 Razorbacks placed five runners inside the top 20 to pick up the team title at the 26th Annual Chile Pepper Festival.
Senior Stanley Kebenei turned in a remarkable performance on Saturday morning, as the All-American collected his first individual title of the 2014 season. Kebenei collected a season-best 8K time of 23:53.50 to pick up the first place finish on Saturday and paced an Arkansas scoring rotation to 51 points to win the Chile Pepper Festival for the second straight season.
It was a thrilling finish, as the Kenyan native defeated fellow countryman and 2013 NCAA 3,000m Steeplechase National Champion, Anthony Rotich of UTEP by exactly one second to claim the fourth individual title of his Arkansas career.
The victory earned Kebenei a spot in the FloTrack.com NCAA Division I Individual Rankings, as he went from being non-ranked in the first two polls of the year to being placed at No. 11 this week.
The Razorbacks return to the course on Oct. 17, as they travel to Madison, Wis., to participate in the Wisconsin adidas Invitational. It will be Arkansas’ final test before the SEC Championships on Oct. 31, as some of the nation’s top cross country teams will meet in Madison to face-off. Race time is slated for 11 a.m.
For more information on the Arkansas men’s cross country team, follow @RazorbackTF on twitter.