Texas competed in one of the premier cross country meets in the country this past weekend, the Chile Pepper Invitational in Fayetteville, Arkansas. The men’s distance team put up a consecutive second-place finish in the 8K with 56 points, while the women’s distance team successfully defended its Chile Pepper Festival title on Saturday, finishing first in the 5K with 54 points.
Following defending Southeastern Conference champion Arkansas by 16 points, the men’s distance team had three top 10 finishers at this past Saturday’s invitational.
Leading the way for Texas was senior Nathaneal Berhane, who finished seventh with a time of 23:53.1. Berhane had a 4:44.60 split after the first mile with a 16:05.7 at the five and a half mile checkpoint. His teammate Hudson Heikkinen followed behind him by seven seconds to finish ninth. Freshman Aidan Torres participated in his first 8K race as a Longhorn, posting a time of 24:06.5. Torres couldn’t make it his third consecutive top-three finish, with the freshman coming in 10th.
Next came junior Hudson Bennett, who, although he finished in 11th place, posted a personal best during the meet with a time of 24:12.9. Bennett’s new best is 25 seconds better than his previous best of 24:37.0 two years ago during the 2023 Big 12 Championship.
Texas senior runner Tadhg Donnelly started the race off strong, being the first Longhorn to reach the one-mile checkpoint with a time of 4:41.2 and placing 10th at the time. Donnelly didn’t finish the race with fellow senior teammate Emmanuel Sgouros, as they both were unable to cross the finish line.
With Donnelly not being able to finish the race, Texas’ chances of winning the overall race were hurt. Texas had five runners in the top 25 that scored points after the one-mile checkpoint, one more than Arkansas at that point. Texas had seven top-50 finishers, the same as the previous UIW Invitational.
On the women’s side, the team took the title behind another standout performance from senior Elizabeth Pickett.
Pickett led the way with a personal-best time of 16:15.4, placing third overall and improving her mark by 15 seconds. This is the second meet she’s been the team’s top finisher, setting the tone early for a strong showing across the lineup.
Sophomore Isabel Conde de Frankenberg followed with a breakout race, finishing ninth in 16:51.2 and shaving off a full 71 seconds off her previous time. Junior Melody Espinoza crossed 13th in 17:03.6, trimming off 10 seconds from her previous best.
Sophomore Sydni Wilkins and freshman Lily Fawcett kept the momentum going with career days of their own. Wilkins finished in 17:11.4, while Fawcett clocked a 47-second personal best at 17:18.2.
Junior Aishling Callanan 17:24.0 and sophomore Kaylin Rendon followed at 17:26.4, helping seal the team’s 52-point margin over Arkansas, which followed second with 106.
Next up for the Longhorns will be Pre-Nationals in Columbia, Missouri, on Saturday, Oct. 18.
