FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Ashton Rainey and Jonathan Rivera each posted top-50 finishes as the Lamar University cross country teams ran in the heavily-stacked Chile Pepper Festival hosted by the University of Arkansas. The men finished in 16th with 417 points in the McDonnell Memorial 8,000-meter course while the women were 24th with 650 points in the Harter's Habanero 5K-course. 

Arkansas and Texas placed in the top two in each race. The Longhorns claimed the women's title with 54 points while the Razorbacks won the men's title with 40. Arkansas also won the individual titles from men's champion Timothy Chesondin (22:53.6) and women's champion Sydney Thorvaldson (16:03.0). 

Twelve men runners started the day for LU. Rivera led the way for the Cardinals as he crossed the line in 34th with his time of 24:51.5. Geovany Cisneros became LU's second top 100 finisher by coming in 88th (25:32.8). Three spots outside the top 100 was Andres Padron (25:46.3) while Alexis Rodriguez (25:49.0) ran 108th. 

Adrian Hahn Vadstein (132nd; 26:08.4) and Treyton Showen (146th; 26:21.7) earned spots in the top 150. Kenny Bibb (26:34.2), Riley Trent (26:36.0) took 162nd and 166th place respectively while Luke Parker (173rd; 26:44.5) and Ryan Servantes (174th; 26:45.3) finished eight one-hundredths of a second apart. Dominick Luna (237th; 28.02.9) and Beau Waldrop (280th; 30:55.4) were the last two to cross the line. 

For the women, five runners competed and it was Rainey who topped the Cardinals with a 16th place run of 17:07.8 to be the only one in the top 100. Hannah Roberts was next after crossing the line in 167th at 19:18.4 while Anna Eischen (19:22.8) was 10 spots behind. Lauren Polk (235th) clocked in a time of 20:39.4 and Claire Bibb finished in 260th at 22:40.8. 

The Cardinals will next run on Oct. 18th in College Station at the Arturo Barrios Invitational hosted by Texas A&M. 
 

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