The ACU cycling team travelled to Waco for their conference race and put together a great showing, grabbing third place in the Division II category.

“I was very proud of how we did,” cycling club president Elizabeth Lurz said. “The Division II rating is not like the NCAA, it is for all schools with less than 15,000 students. So, for us to do so well with such a small student body was awesome.”

Lurz claimed first place individually in Category B Division II, and she was not the only Wildcat to earn a first place finish.

Junior Jonathan Martin also rode well in all three events in order to come away with a first place finish in Category D Division II.

“Winning was a great feeling,” Martin said. “It has been something that we have been working for since the season started. My teammates and I worked well together, and we all had top ten finishes.”

Other racers Zack Morgan and Michael McKissick both followed up their top three finishes two weeks ago with another solid showing in the conference race.

Each competition consists of three races; a road race, a team time trial and the criterium, or the “crit.”

The criterium is a timed race in which each rider races around a course for a given length of time. After that time has expired, the racers begin an all-out sprint for the finish line.

The conference races wrapped up just the second year of ACU cycling, yet they are already a competitive force and Lurz hopes that the club continues to prosper in the future.

“It is great to represent ACU doing something that you love,” Lurz said. “My vision for the club is to have ACU be a force at nationals in the future. Last year I was able to represent ACU at nationals, and someday I would love to see a whole team representing ACU.”