ABILENE – Abilene Christian's men's and women's cross country teams will once again be part of a massively competitive field at this Saturday's
Cowboy Jamboree hosted by Oklahoma State, which claims the USTFCCCA's top-ranked men's program and 22nd-ranked women's team.
This year's event – now in its 76th year and billed as one of the country's largest non-championship races – has attracted many of the NCAA's best schools, including nationally ranked squads from Northern Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana and Michigan. NAU is No. 2 in the men's poll with one first-place vote and will certainly challenge OSU for the team title, which the Cowboys (and Cowgirls) have won each of the last three years.
The first of four Jamboree races begin at 8 a.m. with the university women's 5K starting at 9:15 a.m. followed by the men's 8K at 9:45 a.m. The weather.com forecast for Stillwater that morning calls for a 60 percent chance of rain and scattered thunderstorms with temperatures in the 50s and 60s.
Of all the Wildcats on this fall's roster, only five have previously competed at the Cowboy Jamboree over the past three seasons: Emily Hill and Chloe Susset of the women's team, and Gary Duncan, Erik Forrister and Taylor Ochs of the men's team.
Susset, a senior, was part of an ACU team that finished eighth in Stillwater in 2010, while Forrister and Duncan were freshman on a squad that placed 10th of 18 teams. The following year, however, the men slipped to 23rd and the women 18th even though all three posted better times. Susset finished the 2011 race with a personal best there of 18:53.77 but just cracked the top 60 in a field of 184 runners. In 2010, she placed 27th with a mark of 23:04.81.
Forrister and Duncan both recorded their top times at the 2011 Jamboree. Forrister was second on the team to Will Pike with a time of 26:50.65, while Duncan placed fourth on the Wildcats in 27:28.11.
Susset has twice led ACU to the finish line through two meets this fall. She won the season-opening Bill Libby Invitational in Abilene in 18:07.22 and then placed second overall at Texas Tech in 19:10.31, five seconds behind winner Sharlene Nickle of the Red Raiders.
Backing up Susset has been a large cadre of freshmen, including Landa Dowdy, Diana Garcia-Muñoz, Madeline Jordan and twin sisters Alexandria and Michaela Hackett. Garcia-Muñoz has a pair of top-10 showings under her belt, while Jordan placed seventh in Abilene and 17th in Lubbock. Dowdy also has been a top-five runner for the Wildcats at each of their two meets and the Hackett sisters have placed among the team's top six.
The men's team is still working its way back to full strength and hasn't entered more than six runners at either of its first two events. Forrister has twice led the Wildcats to the finish line with times of 26:53.81 and 27:41.00 and been followed by newcomers Daniel Block and Chad Caton.
