Information from Arkansas Communications is included in this story.
COLUMBIA, Mo. — Isca Chelangat didn’t wait around for anybody.
She went to the front right away and never gave it back. That’s how Isca Chelangat won the Gans Creek Classic in her first race for Arkansas.
Her time was 18 minutes, 58.4 seconds. That’s a new meet record for the 6,000-meter race.
The old mark was 19:07.0. Washington State’s Rosemary Longisa set it in 2025.
Chelangat’s run now ranks 12th on the list of fastest times ever on the course.
She’s been here before. Last year she ran 18:56.1 at Gans Creek during the NCAA Championships while at Oklahoma State. That finished seventh and still stands as the course’s eighth-best time.
How the race played out
Chelangat kept a steady pace from start to finish.
She hit the first kilometer in 3:01.6. She reached 6:12.4 after 2K and 9:21.8 after 3K.
Her next two splits were 12:37.7 and 15:49.6. Then she crossed the line at 18:58.4.
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s Elizabeth Khatevi took second in 19:03.6.
Kentucky’s Ann Lemirisho grabbed third in 19:25.7.
That left 5.2 seconds between Chelangat and the runner-up.
Hogs come up short in a tiebreaker
No. 22 Arkansas scored 169 points. North Dakota had the exact same total.
The tiebreaker went North Dakota’s way 3-2. That dropped the Razorbacks to fifth.
North Dakota’s top five placed 15-22-34-36-62. Arkansas went 1-27-28-43-70.
No. 26 Missouri won the team title at home with 56 points.
Kentucky was second with 136. Florida State took third with 152.
Nebraska (201), Wyoming (246), Ole Miss (261), Tennessee (282) and Utah State (291) rounded out the top 10 in a 29-team field.
Young runners step up
Braelyn Combe and Gabbie Bishop are both freshmen. Neither had ever raced 6K before this meet.
Combe was the Hogs’ No. 2 runner. She placed 27th in 20:18.5.
Bishop was just a tenth of a second back. She took 28th in 20:18.6.
Jayden Hill was fourth for Arkansas. She’s an 800-meter runner, and this was her first cross country race ever. She finished 43rd in 20:37.3.
Freshman Marissa Ferebee closed out the scoring in 70th. She ran 20:59.0.
Josphine Mwaura (21:10.6) and Olivia Pielemeier (21:14.0) were the sixth and seventh runners. The full women’s results are posted online.
Next up at home
The Razorbacks will race again at the Chile Pepper Festival on Saturday, Oct. 3.
That meet takes place on the Agri Park course in Fayetteville.
Paityn Noe and newcomer Emmaculate Chepngetich are expected to run for the Hogs.
