Mulerider Cross Country returns to Fayetteville, Arkansas for today's Chile Pepper Festival following a three-year hiatus. The Muleriders are no stranger to the University of Arkansas cross country course, competing in the meet from 2012-19. The Muleriders placed 13th in both the men's (39 teams) and women's (42 teams) fields the last time the teams competed in 2019.
Three Muleriders have competed at the Chile Pepper Festival in years past. Grad students Rob Kraus and Alyssa Solis ran in the meet in both 2018 and 2019, while senior Hector Hernandez competed in 2019. Kraus ran his 2018 personal best 8k time of 27:36.6 at the Chile Pepper Festival and ran a 28:35.7 the following year at the CPF. Solis ran a 21:15.3 5k in 2018 and a 22:04.1 in 2019. Both runners are now posting PR times more than two minutes faster than their record times at the University of Arkansas cross country course. Hernandez ran 29:26.1 in 2019 and ran 27:32.3 in his only 8k this season.
In the Mulerider's last outing on September 17th, Kraus posted a time of 26:20.84 to place 62nd overall among the 141-runner field. True freshmen Wesley Maxwell and Michael Marler filled out the other spots in the Mulerider top-three with Maxwell finishing in 27:09.20 and Marler in 27:23.29.
Pedro Cervantes, Joseph Garay, Isaac Gass, Hernandez, Kraus, Marler, Maxwell, Briston Rains, Daniel Robles, Jorge Sanchez and Joaquin Tello will compete for the men. On the women's side, J'aime Brown, Bronwyn Buchanan, Dakota Cassidy, Victoria Cheney, Alyzah McGlasson, Soils, Logan Warren and Ava Zindler will be representing the Muleriders. Cheney will be making her season debut this weekend and is posting a 21:53.9 personal best 5k.
The women will run at 3:15 p.m. in the collegiate "Prairie Fire Pepper" 5K and the men will begin the 8K at 3:45 pm.