The cross country team will compete this weekend in the 26th annual Chile Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

The University of Arkansas hosts the meet with more than 80 college teams going to battle for unique Chile Pepper-themed awards and a top finish.

Among the 80 teams are big Div. 1 schools such as Baylor University, University of Arkansas, University of North Texas and Texas State University.

College teams will compete as well as high school teams. Five thousand runners are expected to attend.

The race is open to a large audience to raise money for high school cross country programs in Northwest Arkansas.

The ACU Wildcats plan to go in to this large meet outshine their opponents at the university level.

“Our girls team is a young team made up of mostly freshmen and sophomores,” said Kim Lamadrid, sophomore biology major from West Covina, California. “We just want to show the other teams that we are ready to compete in Div. I regardless of our young group.”

The women’s team has finished top three in past meets and expect the outcome of this meet to be no different.

Stephen F. Austin will also compete in the race and the Wildcats have set a goal to outrun them.

“As a guys team, we want to have a two-minute pack time between our first runner and our fifth runner,” said Reid Rivers, sophomore vocational missions major from Juneau, Alaska. “We also have our sights set on several teams in our conference that will be at the race. Overall, our goal is to do much better than last year, hopefully walking away with multiple PR’s and a great race.”

Each Wildcat is looking to achieve a personal best and believe they can achieve success at the meet.

“We’re expecting to go in there and just compete because we know what we’re capable of individually and as a team,” said Savanah Silva, sophomore journalism major from Adkins. “Anyone can be beat anybody on any given day, so all of us are just ready to give it our all.”