Cross country placed third and sixth in the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree last weekend.
The women’s team came in third out of six teams this weekend led by Diana Garcia-Munoz, sophomore from Phoenix, who finished the 5K in eighth place with a time of 18:45.62.
Overall, ACU finished with 79 points finishing above Belmont, Incarnate Word and Oral Roberts.
It was important that the team outrun Incarnate Word as they are in the Southland Conference. They accomplished this goal and beat them by 25 points.
“One of the major themes we’ve focused on is the team,” said Savanah Silva, sophomore journalism major from Adkins. “Running can be seen as something done individually, but conferences are won by strong teams. We all ran for the greater good of the team.”
The men’s team had a tough meet which landed them in sixth place.
Daniel Block, senior from Saskatchewan, Canada, had to drop out of the race right before finishing which impacted the team’s score dramatically. WHY DID HE DROP OUT???
“We had a rather hard week of training last week and now we are beginning to increase the intensity and decrease the volume of our workouts for at least for the next two weeks,” said Taylor Orchs, junior chemistry major from Midland.
Considering their harder week of training, the men’s team expected a better outcome than 156 points.
They are not pleased, but are looking at the meet as a learning experience and will improve their times based on the skills they found necessary for this meet.
Sterlen Paul, sophomore from Enterprise, Trinidad and Tobago, led the men’s team with other Wildcat competitors less than four minutes behind.
“I think I can speak for the whole team in saying that we felt ready,” said Reid Rivers, sophomore vocational missions major from Juneau, Alaska. “Last year, we did not do nearly as well as we wanted to do, so this year we were motivated to show everyone what ACU is all about.”
With the unexpected fall of Block, the Wildcats were not able to complete their goal, but this meet showed them what they have to improve on for future races.
The cross country team will be back in action this weekend when they travel to Arkansas for the Chile Pepper Festival hosted by the University of Arkansas.
