Four Razorbacks will race over a 5,000m distance during the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on Saturday, December 3. Coverage of the meet hosted by Boston University will be available through FloTrack.
BOSTON, Mass. – Four Razorbacks will race over a 5,000m distance during the Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener on Saturday, December 3. Coverage of the meet hosted by Boston University will be available through FloTrack.
The Arkansas crew includes Lauren Gregory, Mia Cochran, Sydney Thorvaldson, and Claire McCune. Due to 149 entrants in the women’s 5,000m race, the Razorbacks will compete in separate heats starting at 3:30 p.m. (CT).
Live results will be available at this site: https://lancertiming.com. The link for FloTrack coverage, which is a paid service, is available here: https://bit.ly/3UtMO5z.
“The Boston meet provides an opportunity to get qualifying times for the indoor season,” said Arkansas women’s head coach Lance Harter. “This serves a great purpose for us with Lauren Gregory, coming off all the successes she had in mountain running for the U.S., now that her fitness level is incredibly good. We’re going to go in and explore how indoor track feels for the first time in a while.”
Gregory sports an indoor best of 15:32.95 in the 5,000m. That time, set in placing fourth at the 2022 NCAA Indoor Championships, ranks No. 2 on the UA all-time list behind the Arkansas record of 15:13.09 set in Boston by Katie Izzo in December of 2019.
The fall season for Gregory included mountain racing and representing the United States at the World Mountain Racing Championships held in Thailand. As a member of the women’s gold medal winning USA team, Gregory finished 12th individually.
Racing in the fastest heat at Boston, Gregory will be among a field that includes a mix of collegians and professional athletes. Collegians expected to be in this heat include Katelyn Tuohy of North Carolina State, Alabama’s tandem of Mercy Chelangat and Hilda Olemomoi, Northern Arizona’s Elise Stearns, and Oklahoma State’s Natalie Cook.
“Traditionally a fast time at Boston has held up to be among the top 16 that qualify for NCAA Indoors,” stated Harter. “In the past, this meet has proven to have a lot of qualifiers for the indoor national meet. If not, it gives us a better focus of where we are fitness-wise right now and the things we need to adjust to ultimately get a qualifier either in January or February.”
Cochran and Thorvaldson both had a prosperous season in cross country, finishing as the second and third runners among the Razorback squad throughout meets during the fall.
McCune, who didn’t have cross country eligibility remaining after transferring from Drury, raced unattached in some cross country meets during the fall. McCune has an indoor best of 16:51.90 in the 5,000m set in winning the 2021 Ichabod Invite held in Topeka, Kansas.
“We are going to take the two cross country freshmen in Mia Cochran and Sydney Thorvaldson, who both have had very successful cross country seasons,” noted Harter. “Their fitness is really good, so we’ll get that as a starting point. For Claire this is an opportunity for her to make a debut as an Arkansas Razorback.”
In the NCAA Cross Country Championships held in November, Cochran was the second Razorback, placing 64th in the field of 254 runners, and fifth among freshmen in the race. She will make her indoor debut at the 5,000m distance.
Thorvaldson, the 2022 SEC Indoor Freshman Runner of the Year, set a career best of 16:00.14 in finishing fifth at the SEC Championships and currently ranks No. 9 on the UA all-time list, one place ahead of Dominique Scott (16:00.73).
