North Texas men take second, women ninth at Chile Pepper meet

North Texas returned to cross country competition Saturday with a second-place men’s finish and a ninth-place women’s finish at the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas, giving the Denton program fresh benchmarks after nearly a month between meets.

The Mean Green men scored 103 points in the McDonnell Memorial 8-kilometer race, finishing behind Texas’ 64 and ahead of UTEP’s 137. The official results list 26 scoring teams. North Texas placed five runners among the first 37 finishers, with its leading two crossing fourth and 11th overall.

The scoring detail explains how the runner-up finish came together. UNT’s five counting positions were fourth, 11th, 20th, 33rd and 35th after non-scoring entrants were removed from the team calculation. Its first-to-fifth runner spread was 69 seconds.

The women’s Harter’s Habanero 5-kilometer race produced a different challenge. North Texas totaled 240 points to finish ninth among 28 scoring teams. Host Arkansas won with 69, followed by Mississippi State with 83 and Tulsa with 89. UNT finished 23 points ahead of 10th-place Southern Miss.

North Texas put two women in the top 24 overall. Its five counting scoring positions were 12th, 24th, 54th, 61st and 89th, and the official results listed a rounded first-to-fifth spread of 1 minute, 36 seconds. The university’s recap reported personal-best performances within the women’s lineup as well as the men’s group.

This was UNT’s first competition since the Sept. 4 John McKenzie Invitational in Fort Worth. The men won that season opener, while the women placed third. Saturday’s larger scoring fields supplied a broader comparison ahead of the next stretch of the schedule.

Both squads return to action Friday, Oct. 16, at the Arturo Barrios Invitational in College Station. North Texas lists the men’s start for 8:30 a.m. and the women’s race for 9:15 a.m. The American Conference Championship follows on Oct. 31.

Analysis: The men’s result gives UNT a useful combination to build on: low scores from the front of the lineup and a manageable gap through the fifth scorer. For the women, two high finishes helped secure a top-10 team result, while the wider distribution of the remaining counting places points to where improved pack running could have the greatest effect.

Sources: North Texas Athletics meet report; official men’s results; official women’s results; North Texas meet preview.

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