Kearney, Neb. – The Nebraska Kearney cross country teams both finished in seventh place at the annual Chile Pepper Festival Friday in Fayetteville, Ark.
 
The large meet featured two different college races and included NCAA Division I, II and II schools as well as junior colleges and NAIA institutions.
 
Ranked eighth in the Central Region, the Loper women tallied 225 points to come in ahead of 12 D1 schools, No. 16 Colorado State-Pueblo and No. 30 Northwest Missouri. Ninth-ranked Arkansas (29) won going away with Southern Miss second (129) and Dallas Baptist (136) third. DBU is ranked 27^th in D2 and finished ahead of three D1's.
 
On the men's side, No. 21 UNK scored 215 points to best 13 D1 schools, No. 28 Pueblo and region foe East Central (Okla.). The Razorbacks (61) won with Colby C.C. the runner up (149), No. 6 Missouri Southern third (157) and No. 19 Mississippi College (184) right ahead of the Lopers.
 
Individually, Omaha junior Hannah Pollan completed the 5k course in 17:21.2 to be 23rd in a field of 276. Junior Isabel Van Camp of the Hogs won (15:58) with the top D2 finisher being DBU's Madison Brown (10th/16:47.5). Pollan was the fourth D2 finisher.
 
Iowa redshirt sophomore Myles Bach paced the men in 24:28.9, good for 26th in a field of 356 runners and eighth among D2 runners. Colby's Sanele Masondo won the 8k race in 23:18.4.
 
Also scoring for the men was Ainsworth junior Ben Arens (33rd/24:34.4), McCool Junction senior Luke Stuckey (40th; 24:42), Juniata senior Justin Vrooman (59th/24:57.6) and Kansas sophomore Brett Schoenhofer (72nd/25:05.8).
 
Fremont sophomore Mara Hemmer (46th/17:42) and Kearney redshirt sophomore Grace Bonsall (52nd/17:46.3) were the women's second and third finishers, respectively. Also cracking the top five this week was Hooper redshirt sophomore Elizabeth Polk (60th/17:53) and Albion sophomore Jordan Soto-Stopak (71st/18:03.4).
 
UNK heads to the first annual Platte River Rumble Oct. 14 at Mahoney State Park. The meet is co-hosted by Creighton and Nebraska Omaha.