Razorbacks 9th in NCAA Championships, Thorvaldson earns All-America honor

EARLYSVILLE, Virginia – Arkansas placed ninth in the NCAA Cross Country Championships during the 6,000m race held on the Panorama Farms course on Saturday with Sydney Thorvaldson earning an All-America honor in placing 11th.

The No. 12 Razorbacks scored 329 points off team scoring places of 10-64-71-75-109.

Arkansas registered its 17th top 10 finish in program history. Recently the Razorbacks finished eighth in 2021 and had consecutive years among the top 10 in 2014 (5th) and 2015 (9th).

No. 1 NC State claimed its third consecutive national team championships, totaling 123 points. Runner-up with 124 points was No.1 Northern Arizona while No. 3 Oklahoma State placed third with 156 points. In fourth with 237 points was No. 7 Notre Dame.

The rest of the top 10 teams included four SEC programs for the first time in conference history. No. 8 Florida placed fifth and were followed by No. 11 Tennessee (294), No. 20 Alabama (314), No. 10 Washington (323), No. 12 Arkansas (329), and No. 9 Oregon (335).

A total of five SEC schools were part of the women’s field, eclipsing the previous best of four schools in 2016. Three SEC programs placed among the top 12 in 2020.

Parker Valby of Florida claimed the individual title in 18:55.2 over Alabama’s Doris Lemngole (19:05.7) while Notre Dame’s Olivia Markezich (19:10.0) finished third.

Thorvaldson, a Razorback sophomore, led the Arkansas crew in placing 11th overall in 19:33.8, to earn an All-America honor. It’s the best Razorback individual finish since the 2019 national championship squad when Katie Izzo and Taylor Werner placed second and third.

Racing with the lead pack that followed Valby, Thorvaldson was among the top three through the first half of the race with 1k splits of 2:55.0, 3:18.1, and 3;20.2. Over the latter half of the race, splits for Thorvaldson went 3:14.7, 3:29.3, and 3:16.8.

Laura Taborda, the lone senior competing with Arkansas cross country this season, placed 83rd overall and 63rd among team scoring. She posted a time of 20:33.8.

Mia Cochran, a sophomore, clocked 20:39.6 to place 73rd overall and 54th in team scoring. Freshman Paityn Noe posted a time of 20:41.0 in placing 90th overall and 69th in team scoring. The fifth finisher for Arkansas was Mary Ellen Eudaly, who covered the course in 20:56.1, placing 139th and 109th.

Also racing for the Razorbacks were Heidi Nielson and Nyah Hernandez, who ran 21:51.7 and 21:56.0.