FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Missouri S&T's cross country teams took on its toughest competition of the season Friday as it took on a challenging field in the Chile Pepper Festival at the University of Arkansas.  The S&T men came in 27^th place in the team standings, while the women's squad finished in 31^st.

Emma Puetz had the top finish for the Miners Friday in the 297-runner race as she ended up in 31^st, recording a time of 17:52 over five kilometers.  Puetz, who ran the third-fastest time in school history at the Larry Young Invitational two weeks ago, improved on that as her time was the second-best ever and only the second time under 18 minutes all time.

Victoria Regitz was S&T's next finisher with a time of 19:56, while Grace Giesler was two spots behind her with her time of 19:58.   Clare Holmes crossed the finish line in 20:13 and Grace Johnson posted a time of 22:22.  Allison Rush was the sixth and final S&T runner to finish the race, doing so in 24:06.

Eight of the top 10 teams were from the NCAA Division I ranks in the Harter's Habanero event, led by Arkansas with a score of 20.  The Razorbacks also had the top individual in Paityn Noe, who had a time of 16:09.

Lucas Rackers (Florissant, MO/St. Louis University HS) had the best performance among the men as he finished in 83^rd place among the 292 runners in the eight-kilometer race with a time of 25:54.  Evan Mitchell (Shawnee, KS/Shawnee Mission Northwest) finished the race in a time of 26:45 and Joshua Nunn (Independence, MO/Truman) was the third Miner to cross the finish line in 27:13.   S&T's top five was completed by Joshua Patterson (Cameron, NC/Union Pines) in 27:18 and Spencer Teske (Naperville, IL/Neuqua Valley) in 27:33, while the next two finishers were Samuel Patterson (Cameron, NC/Union Pines) in 27:42 and Caleb Schoenberg (Wentzville, MO/Timberland) in a time of 28:22.

Arkansas' Kirami Yego won the race with a time of 23:14 as the Razorbacks had five of the top six finishers to win the team competition.

Missouri S&T will compete again next Saturday at the Brian T. Simpson Invitational at Gans Creek Cross Country Course in Columbia.  Next week's meet will be the last for the Miners prior to the Great Lakes Valley Conference Championships.