The Chili Pepper Festival is one of the largest intercity events in the country. In many ways, this was the opening salvo for the University of Arkansas in the 2024 cross-country season.
Special thanks to Shawn Price and the Chile Pepper Festival for some great photos and history.
Record-breaking performance earns Kirami Yego another Chile Pepper Festival title
FAYETTEVILLE – Razorback Kirami Yego defended his Chili Pepper Festival title in the McDonnell Memorial 8k and set a Meet and Agri Park course record with a winning time of 22 minutes, 57.0 seconds to lead Arkansas to a 3rd team win.
Five Razorbacks placed in the top 10 in Saturday’s race as Arkansas scored 29 points with a 1-3-6-9-10 finish. Western Colorado is second in team scoring with 127, followed by East Central (159), CSU Pueblo (178) and Alabama – Huntsville (188).
The next five teams included SFA (192), Butler CC (207), Hutchinson CC (259), LSU (264) and Tarleton State (271). A total of 25 teams scored in the McDonnell Memorial Tournament.
Yego bested the field by 22 seconds with SFA runner-up Elkana Kipruto in 23:19.2, while Razorback teammate Timothy Chesondin finished third in 23:23.6.
After winning the 2023 Chile Pepper Festival race in 23:14.1, Yego became the first to clock sub-23 minutes over 8000m at Agri Park. The previous best time of 23:03.6 was set by Vincent Kiprop of Missouri Southern in 2016.
The previous fastest time by a Razorback on the course was held by Josphat Boit in 2004. Recorded 23:09.9 in a different layout at the SEC Championships.
Yego covered the first mile of the race in 4:31.6, with teammate Brian Massa second in 4:32.1. In the 2-mile split, Yego led the field in 9:16.8, with Chesondin second in that stage in 9:17.1.
Yego extended his lead to nine seconds in a 5.5k split of 15:24.4, while Chesondin crossed that mark in 15:33.2. Yego was 20 seconds ahead of Chesondin (20:29.6) by 7k, while Kipruto was third (20:30.1).
Masai finished 6th in the race with a time of 23:59.4. Elias Schreml and Ruben Reyna then rounded out the scoring for Arkansas as they finished 9th and 10th with times of 24:05.4 and 24:05.8.
Tommy Romanu led the rest of the Razorback crew, finishing 13th with a time of 24:18.7. Davis Helmerich was 28th in 24:46.1 and Donovan Bitticks was 48th in 25:02.4.
Arkansas runners included Eli Seavey (62nd | 25:16.6), Leo Spitzer (66th | 25:20.1) and Dawson Welch (91st | 25:42.9). A total of 273 runners finished the race.
Full results here: CPF24 Male Results
