Razorbacks open cross country season at Mizzou Opener

FAYETTEVILLE – Arkansas women’s cross country season begins on Friday at 8 a.m. with a 5,000m race on Missouri’s Gans Creek course at the Mizzou Opener. The women’s field will include host Missouri, St. Louis, and Wisconsin.

Live results from the meet will be available here - https://live.pttiming.com/xc-ptt.html?mid=8051. There is no live streaming of the race.

The Razorbacks, ranked No. 18 and No. 22 in national preseason polls, head into this season with a pair of All-Americans in Paityn Noe and Sydney Thorvaldson in addition to five returners from last year’s squad along with a couple of newcomers.

“We’re fortunate to have Paityn and Sydney as leaders of the group, and I think Coach Burns and the rest of the young ladies on the team will help fill it out,” said Arkansas women’s head coach Chris Johnson.

“It’s important to have that type of leadership from Sydney and Paityn. They won’t run this week but will be ready for Chile Pepper. Their leadership lends itself to us having a successful cross country season. It gives us an ability to have a top 10 finish, all things considered, and being in the top three at the conference meet, which is always a goal of ours.”

The Gans Creek course will host the NCAA Championships in November. Razorback women’s cross country coach Marc Burns helped design the course when he was the men’s and women’s head cross country coach at Missouri.

“This weekend, I think it will be an opportunity to see the NCAA Championship course,” noted Burns. “We’re not going to race everybody this weekend but we're going to have a good opportunity to check out the course.

“I know a little bit about that course, so I’m looking forward to sharing that with the team and making sure they know everything they need to know about that course so that we’re ready to go championship time of the year.”

A new addition to the Arkansas squad is Josphine Mwaura, who has competed with Oklahoma State and Kansas State previously. Mwaura placed fourth in the 2024 Midwest Region after finishing 14th in the Big 12 Championships and competed at the NCAA Championships with OSU last year.

“We’re excited to have Paityn and Sydney back this season, they’ll form a great top two for us and lead us along the way,” Burns said. “We’ve got a long way to go in the season, but we’re excited about who we’ve added in.

“I think Josphine Mwaura will be a great addition to the team. Olivia Pielemeier has made huge jumps from her freshman year to sophomore year and then she looks like a whole another version of herself now. So, we’re really excited about that as well.

“Bradley Weimer looks like she’s taken another step up from where she was last year when she ran 34:21 in the 10k. Madeleine Gear is another who has made a big jump this summer and will make a nice impact on the squad. So, we’ve got all these pieces that are coming together for us.”