Former Ballard (Huxley) prep star Paityn Noe missed repeating as champion at the Chile Pepper Festival by the slimmest of margins on Saturday.
The Arkansas sophomore raced stride for stride with teammate Mia Cochran for the entire Harter Habanero 5K race in Fayetteville. Both finished with the exact same time of 15 minutes, 56.3 seconds, and Cochran was declared the winner by the timing company. Noe and Cochran, a junior, set the third- and fourth-fastest times ever for the 3.1-mile distance at their home course at Agri Park.
Noe, the 2023 winner of this race at Agri Park, leads off this edition of the WEEKEND UPDATE of the best performances by Iowa-based collegiate and postcollegiate distance runners and triathletes.
Former Aplington-Parkersburg and Northern Iowa athlete Sophia Jungling placed 37th. The LSU senior ran 17:31.8 to held the Tigers placed second in the team race with 75 points. New Southeastern Conference member Texas won the team title with 42 points. Arkansas was third with 88.