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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. \u2013 UT Arlington cross country is set for its second meet of the fall, making the trip up to the 38th Annual Chile Pepper Festival. The Mavericks will run in the McDonnell Memorial men’s 8k at 10:25 a.m. Saturday and the women’s side will follow immediately after with the Harter’s Habanero 5k at 11 a.m.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The festival is hosted by the University of Arkansas at Agri Park in Fayetteville, Arkansas. This will be UTA’s second trip to the Chile Pepper Festival in as many years. The men’s team finished ninth overall while the women placed sixth in the 2025 Chile Pepper Festival.<\/p>\n
UTA is coming off a strong showing in its season opener, the Gerald Richey UTA Invitational. The Mavericks swept the podium on the men’s side, taking home the team title, while the women’s team finished second, narrowly missing out on a team title of its own.<\/p>\n
Mateo Doherty<\/a>, Angel Sanchez<\/a> and Toby Eaton<\/a> finished first, second and third individually in the men’s 5k after Dorcas Jepkosgei<\/a> won the women’s 5k by nearly a full minute. Connie Ndiema finished as the runner up in the women’s 5k, a race that served as her UTA cross country debut.\u00a0<\/p>\n LINEUP
Men<\/p>\n
Meet Information
FOLLOW ALONG
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\nINSIDE THE LINEUP
\nWomen<\/p>\n
\n\tDorcas Jepkosgei<\/a> set the UTA 5k program record with a time of 16:09.5 at the 2025 Chile Pepper Festival.
\n\tJepkosgei is coming off a win in the 5k at the Gerald Richey UTA Invitational. Her time of 16:21.0 was nearly a full minute better than second place. The sophomore has finished second or first in five cross country events with UTA.
\n\tMatro Jepkemboi<\/a> makes her senior season debut as one of UTA’s more accomplished runners. In her first three seasons, Jepkemboi has laid claim to three different program records \u2014 Indoor 5,000m (16:13.81), Outdoor 5,000m (16:14.72) and Outdoor 10,000m (34:10.78) and earned seven conference medals.
\n\tJepkemboi finished in the top 10 in four of the six cross country events she competed in over the course of the 2025 season.
\n\tConnie Chiptoo<\/a> Ndiema made her UTA cross country debut at the Gerald Richey, finishing second overall with a time of 17:17.3, 13 seconds ahead of third place.
\n\tLauren Baur<\/a> was the third UTA runner to cross the finish line at the Gerald Richey. She finished a cross country career-best eighth overall with a personal-best time of 18:06.9.\u00a0
\n\tAbigail Perez<\/a> clocked a personal-best mark of 18:11.2 at the Gerald Richey 5k, more than a minute better than her time at the 2025 Gerald Richey. She finished 10th overall.
\n\tSophia Hamdani<\/a> and Justina Lusby<\/a> finished back-to-back in 16th and 17th respectively at the Gerald Richey. Hamdani recorded a time of 18:28.9 in what was her first collegiate event.\u00a0
\n\tLusby finished just over a second later at 18:30, a mark 40 seconds better than her previous personal best.
\n\tEmilia Mandl<\/a> is set to debut in what will be her fourth season with UTA. She set a personal-best in the 5k at the 2025 Chile Pepper Festival with a time of 18:09.3
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\n\tAs a team, the Mavericks secured their second Gerald Richey men’s title in a row.
\n\tMateo Doherty<\/a> (1st), Angel Sanchez<\/a> (2nd) and Toby Eaton<\/a> (3rd) finished in the top three spots at the Gerald Richey men’s 5k. Doherty and Sanchez finished with a time of 14:37.9 \u2014 a personal-best mark for each \u2014 and Eaton clocked a personal-best 14:40.7 at the event.
\n\tKebede Kerlin<\/a> ran a personal-best time of 15:15.2 at the Gerald Richey. He finished 11th overall and was the fourth Maverick to cross the finish line.
\n\tJameson Stewart<\/a> beat his personal best in the 5k by eight seconds after running a 15:23.1 at the Gerald Richey. The sophomore was the fifth Maverick to finish and he placed 14th overall.
\n\tCompeting in his first collegiate event, Lucas Whitt<\/a> placed 15th in the 5k at the Gerald Richey. He ran the event in 15:29.3.
\n\tLeo LeGrand<\/a> is entering his second season with the Mavericks. He completed four events during the 2025 cross country season.
\n\tWhile this is set to be Daniel Armstrong’s<\/a> fourth season at UTA, the Chile Pepper will be just the second cross country meet he’s competed in as a Maverick, the other being the Arturo Barrios Invitational in 2024.
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\nDate: Oct. 3, 2026
\nWomen’s 5K \/ 11 a.m.
\nMen’s 8K \/ 10:25 a.m.
\nLocation: Agri Park: Fayetteville, Ark.
\nLive Results<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n— #BuckEm \u2013<\/p>\n
\nFollow the UTA track and field and cross-country teams on X (@UTAMavsTFXC<\/a>), Instagram (@UTAMavsTFXC<\/a>) and Facebook (\/UTAMavsTFXC<\/a>).\u00a0<\/p>\n