Arkansas distance crew starts indoor season in Boston
BOSTON – Arkansas distance runners begin the indoor track and field season on Saturday at Boston University’s Sharon Colyear-Danville Season Opener as they compete in 3,000m and 5,000m races.
Live coverage of the event will be available through subscription service Flotrack.com at the following link: Boston Univ. Season Opener. Live results will be available here: https://lancertiming.com.
The Razorbacks will have 10 athletes racing who just completed the cross country season. Paityn Noe is scheduled to race in the 5,000m while Tiana LaStracco competes in the 3,000m.
On the men’s side the 3,000m will include Yaseen Abdalla, Elias Schreml, and Ben Shearer. Racing over 5,000m will be Patrick Kiprop, Timothy Chesondin, Brian Masai, Reuben Reina, and Tommy Romanow.
The men’s 3,000m collegiate record is a stated goal for an elite field assembled. The collegiate record of 7:36.42 was set by Drew Bosley of Northern Arizona in Boston during a January 2023 race.
Abdalla, who recently finished fourth in the NCAA Cross Country Championships as Arkansas placed third in team scoring, has a career best of 7:42.23. The Arkansas school record in the event is 7:38.59 set by Alistair Cragg in 2004.
Top seeds in the men’s 3,000m field include North Carolina’s tandem of Ethan Strand and Parker Wolfe along with Nathan Green of Washington and Gary Martin of Virginia.
Razorbacks Schreml and Shearer enter the meet with career best indoor times of 7:55.43 and 7:46.96 from the 2024 season.
Noe will be competing in her first indoor season as a Razorback after missing last season due to an injury. She recently earned cross county All-America with a seventh place finish in the national championships. LoStracco will make her debut at the 3,000m distance.
During the 2024 outdoor season Noe established a 5,000m career best of 15:34.49 in claiming a bronze medal at the SEC Championships. The Arkansas indoor record at 5,000m is 15:13.09 set by Katie Izzo at the 2019 version of this meet.
Top seeds in the women’s 5,000m include Alabama’s Doris Lemngole, New Mexico’s Pamela Kosgei, Florida’s Hilda Olemomoi, and Stanford’s Amy Bunnage. Those four runners finished 1-2-3-4 in the recent NCAA Cross Country Championships.
Kiprop holds the Arkansas school record in the men’s 5,000m with a 13:24.32 set in 2023. Top seeds in the field at Boston includes Olympian Graham Blanks of Harvard, who recently defended his NCAA cross country title, along with Wisconsin’s Bob Liking, Villanova’s Liam Murphy, Northern Arizona’s Drew Bosley, and Oklahoma State’s Brian Musau.
Chesondin will be making his indoor debut at 5,000m while Masai ran 13:46.76 on this track in 2023 during the Valentine Invitational. Reina established his career best of 13:57.61 at this meet a year ago while Romanow, racing over 5,000m indoors for the first time, has an outdoor best of 13:51.91 from the 2024 season.
Razorback Approximate Race Times (CT)
| 1:25 pm | Women’s 3,000m Heat 3 | Tiana LoStracco |
| 2:10 pm | Men’s 3,000m Heat 1 | Yaseen Abdalla, Ben Shearer |
| 2:20 pm | Men’s 3,000m Heat 2 | Elias Schreml |
| 3:10 pm | Women’s 5,000m Heat 1 | Paityn Noe |
| 5:15 pm | Men’s 5,000m Heat 1 | Patrick Kiprop |
| 5:43 pm | Men’s 5,000m Heat 3 | Timothy Chesondin |
| 5:58 pm | Men’s 5,000m Heat 4 | Brian Masai |
| 6:05 pm | Men’s 5,000m Heat 5 | Reuben Reina |
| 6:20 pm | Men’s 5,000m Heat 6 | Tommy Romanow |