Saturday morning will be a true test for the ACU cross country program as both men and women’s teams will face off against schools from the SEC and Big 12.

The team will travel to College Station where they will compete in the A&M Invitational. The men’s race will kick off first where they will run an 8k race at 8:15 followed by the women with a 6k. This will be the first race of the season that the women will compete at the distance they will race at conference.

The Aggie Invitational is hosting some big names with the University of Texas being the highest ranked of all the universities, having both the men’s and women’s programs sitting at the number two spot in the south central region.

Along with Texas, LSU and Missouri, five Southland Conference teams will be in attendance. This will be the first true test for both teams in regards to conference competition.

The women’s team is coming off of a home meet win against Texas Tech last weekend. Junior Alexandria Hackett took first place with a 5k time of 17:27. She was followed by teammate Diana Garcia-Munoz who would unfortunately get disqualified for cutting the course unintentionally.

Overall, the women’s team had five of their runners in the top eight giving them the edge over the Red Raiders.

The men’s team was led by senior Daniel Block who would finish with a time of 19:22 and claim the fourth place spot. Following him was teammate and sophomore Ryan Cleary with the seventh place spot.

ACU is going into the A&M Invitational as one of the few teams unranked. Despite this factor, both sides have shown throughout the season that they can be a factor.

“Our goal for tomorrow is just to go out there and compete,” said assistant coach Ray Walker, “It’s still September, and we still have a few weeks to get to that top performance for conference.”

Both Block and Hackett were named Southland Conference Athlete of the Week honorable mention this week in recognition of their efforts against the Red Raiders.

The first race is set for 8:15 a.m.