(photo via ACU Sports)
The ACU men’s and women’s cross-country will hit the road one final time before the conference championship meet. This weekend they will head to Little Rock, Arkansas to compete in the Little Rock Invitational hosted by UALR.
It’s been about two weeks since the teams have competed, giving them time to hit practices hard. Competition at this weekend races include Arkansas State, conference rival Central Arkansas and several others. The women have been dominating this season, finishing no lower than third this season.
The Wildcats have been led by junior Allie Hackett, who has had a season no one saw coming. Her determination has allowed the rest of the women’s team to step up and keep their pack time close and individual bests at an all time high. Teammate and fellow junior, Diana Garcia-Munoz led the team last year but has been right behind Allie each meet.
ACU is coming off of one of the top performances of this season when they took an impressive second place finish at one of the country’s premiere meets, the Chili Pepper Festival Cross Country meet.
With the women’s side preparing for the Southland conference meet, this weekend is meant to prepare their legs and get one final competitive race in.
On the men’s side, the team has been improving each meet, with senior Daniel Block leading the team. Sophomore Ryan Cleary and senior Sterlen Paul have followed behind Block most of the season.
This weekend’s race is being held at the Rebsamen Golf Course. The course is described as fairly flat with rolling hills so it wouldn’t be too far fetched to assume fast times for both teams.
“Our expectations for the weekend is to try out race strategies,” said Ray Walker, assistant cross country coach, “It’s a nice small meet where we can try to sharpen up our race tactics.”
The women’s 5k starts at 10 a.m. with the men’s 8k followed immediately after.
“I’m hoping this meet builds confidence,” Walker said, ” We had a few tough training sessions these past two weeks, but they should be able to run well. I believe all meets are training meets for championships.”
