The Wildcats’ cross country team has had a month off since its last event on Sept. 5 and is gearing back up to compete again this weekend, entering mid-way through the year.
The year started off for ACU at its Naimadu Classic. The men finished in first place while the women took second place.
At the Gerald Richey UTA Invitational, however, the script flipped for the women’s team as they finished seventh, while the men continued steamrolling, finishing second.
“We didn’t get out the way that we need to get out,” Head Coach Nathan Meeuwenberg said in response to the women’s outing. “The whole race, we were kind of fighting our way back.”
It’s important to mention, however, that the women’s team has been without some prominent pieces to start the year.
Prominent distance runners Peyton Bornstein, graduate student from Tolland, Connecticut, and Charley Hamilton, sophomore from Rockwall, came into the fall with season-ending injuries, while Audrey Chitwood, sophomore from Boise, Idaho, battled an injury that occurred last season, keeping her out of the second tournament.
But Meeuwenberg said this has caused the team to adopt a next-man-up mentality.
“They’ve just stepped up and started kind of bonding together,” Meeuwenberg said. “You gotta have kind of the mindset of having your teammates’ backs even when they’re injured.”
On the contrary, in this event, Andruw Villa, sophomore from Abilene, placed third overall with a time of 15:01.9, excelling again following his previous performance, when he finished second. This earned him some conference accolades as he was named the Men’s XC Western Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week.
“He raises the feeling of our team immediately,” Meeuwenberg said. “The thing that I love about Andruw is that no moment is too big for him.”
Moving forward, there is another opportunity for the Wildcats to bounce back even stronger as they head to Arkansas for the Chile Pepper Festival on Saturday.
“Both are getting better and doing the little things that they need to do,” Meeuwenberg said. “I fully expect that they respond well and have a better meet in Arkansas.”
The next few weeks serve as the opportunity to do just that: get better. Following the Chile Pepper Festival and Arturo Barrios Invitational in College Station, the WAC Championship comes up on Oct. 31.
“Nothing matters until conference,” Meeuwenberg said. “It’s not like football, where you lose in August or September and it can keep you from making the playoffs. If we can just make sure that we’re healthy and at our best fitness when it matters.”
But as of this week, Chitwood said there’s no need to worry. The team is still coming out hungry to compete.
“We have some really good momentum right now,” Chitwood said. “Everyone just really wants to do well, for themselves, but also for the Lord and for the team as well.”
