The Wildcat cross country team will head to San Antonio Saturday for the Incarnate Word Invitational.
The cross country team will compete against conference rival Incarnate Word along with many other teams.
With an 11th place finish last weekend, the women’s team is expecting another successful outcome this weekend.
“After what happened to Coach Graham, we have been doing our best to stay on top,” said Diana Garcia Munoz, sophomore accounting major from Phoenix. “We are taking care of ourselves so that we can race well for him. In this last meet, us girls realized that we truly have more potential than we thought. We are hoping to keep a positive attitude for this next meet.”
Despite the inexperience of the young team, the women have yet to show mercy for their opponents and have had a successful year thus far.
After a weekend of competing against big Div. I teams, the Wildcats looked to rest before going into the meet this weekend against teams part of the Southland conference.
“The plan is to taper,” Munoz said. “We are having a bit more rest this week, but we also have to give a lot of effort on hard workouts to make up for that rest.”
On the other hand, the men’s cross country team is hoping to improve individual times and achieve victory for the team as a whole.
“We trained hard all through last week,” said Reid Rivers, sophomore vocational missions major from Juneau, Alaska. “This week, we have gone back into our typical pre-race-week workouts so that we will be fresh for the race this weekend.”
The men’s team wants to succeed this weekend for their own redemption, but, also for Coach Graham.
“More than anything else, our goal this weekend is to honor him and the work he’s done and to make him proud,” Rivers said. “He’s in a fight, and we aim to show him he is not fighting it alone.”
As both teams go into the meet with a fresh start, they are hoping to show up their competition in the last race before the Southland conference championships.
Head coach Keith Barnier said they may not be ready now, but the Wildcats will become the conference champions.
