FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Dorcas Jepkosgei broke the program record for women's 5k as UT Arlington competed in its second cross country meet of the season Saturday, running in the 38th Annual Chile Pepper Festival hosted by the University of Arkansas. 

It's the second-straight season Jepkosgei set a new program-best mark in the 5k at the Chile Pepper Festival. The sophomore ran the Women Harter's Habanero 5k in 15 minutes and 59.1 seconds, beating the previous record — 16:09.5 — by over 10 seconds.

Jepkosgei narrowly missed out on the outright individual women's title. Arkansas' Braelyn Combe caught Jepkosgei right at the tape and won by a tenth of a second. It is the sixth cross country event that the sophomore has finished second or first in for her collegiate career.

"So proud of her performance," Head cross country coach John Sauerhage said, "She obviously was bummed to get caught at the tape, but she ran great."

Matro Jepkemboi made her senior-season debut at the event and made it count, finishing with a time of 16:59.0. The Eldoret, Kenya native finished 18th overall and was the second Maverick to finish.

Connie Chiptoo Ndiema turned in another good effort coming off of her first collegiate cross country race at the Gerald Richey UTA Invitational. The Kitale, Kenya native clocked a time of 17:19.5, third best on the team and 34th best overall.

Also making her season debut, Emilia Mandl placed 50th overall. The Malmö, Sweden native set a new personal-best with a time of 17:43.5, beating her previous best by over 25 seconds.

Lauren Baur was the fifth Maverick to finish. The senior placed 80th overall and ran a personal-best time of 18:06.2. Baur has set new personal bests in each of the first two meets of the season.

Abigail Perez, Justina Lusby and Sophia Hamdani capped off the race for the Mavericks, all finishing within two seconds of each other. Perez ran an 18:12.1, finishing 86th and Lusby finished close behind with a personal-best time of 18:13.3 in 89th. Hamdani — in her second collegiate race — ran an 18:14.3 to finish 91st.

As a team, UTA ended the day in fourth out of 29 teams, a two-spot improvement on the 2025 Chile Pepper Festival. All eight Mavericks finished in the top 100 out of a field that saw 249 runners finish. 

UTA finished in front of a pair of power four programs in Baylor and Texas.

"The women's team ran great," Sauerhage said. "That's our best overall team result in quite some time. Very proud of their performance." 

The men's team kicked off the day with the McDonell Memorial 8k. As a team, the men improved on their ninth-place finish in the 2025 Chile Pepper Festival, placing seventh in this year's outing out of 26 teams.

Toby Eaton led the way for the Mavericks, finishing 14th overall with a time of 24:38.8. Eaton has finished in the top 15 in both of his races so far this season, finishing third in the Gerald Richey UTA Invitational.

Coming off of the first individual title of his collegiate career at the Gerald Richey, Mateo Doherty put together another strong outing. The sophomore finished 21st overall, clocking a time of 24:49.7.

"Toby and Mateo ran great today," Sauerhage said. "I thought we had a very solid finish there."

Kebede Kerlin was the third Maverick to cross the finish line. Kerlin finished 38th overall with a time of 25:22.6.

The fourth and fifth UTA runners to finish were Jameson Stewart and Leo LeGrand. Stewart's day came to an end after 26:01,7, good for 82nd place. LeGrand set a new personal-best time in the 8k with a 26:27.6.

Rounding out the UTA lineup was freshman Lucas Whitt. In his first collegiate 8k, he finished with a time of 26:30.3.

UTA will be back in action at the Arturo Barrios Invitational, set for Oct. 16 in College Station. The meet — hosted by Texas A&M — is UTA's regular season finale. FOLLOW ALONG
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