Cross Country | 10/7/2016 11:01:00 AM
ABILENE - Abilene Christian's cross country program heads to Live Oak Park for the third time in four years to compete at the annual UIW Invitational. The collegiate men's 8K on the all grass course starts Saturday at 8 a.m. followed by the women's 6K at 8:35 a.m.
ACU last ran in Live Oak, Texas, during the fall of 2014 with the women winning the race with 33 points and the men placing fourth behind Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Texas State and UIW with 85 points. The women were led that morning by champion Diana García Muñoz (22:54.2) and runner-up Alexandria Hackett (23:04.9), while the men were paced by Daniel Block, who finished 14th overall with a time of 25:27.8.
Senior Sterlen Paul was second on the Wildcats in 26:02.7 at the 2014 meet and junior Ryan Cleary completed that course as a freshman in 26:36.3. Junior John Baker (27:59.9) and senior Reid Rivers (27:21.6) also were part of that field as was junior Gabby Thompson, who was fourth (15th overall) for the Wildcats' women's team in 24:04.4.
Saturday's races are the Wildcats first since running the challenging courses outlined at Oklahoma State's Cowboy Jamboree. Thompson led ACU on the women's side, posting a 29th-place 5K time of 19:56.1, which was a 52.9 second improvement over her previous Stillwater best of 20:48.97. She was followed to the finish line by her teammates senior Sierra Bennett (37th, 21:10.9), freshmen Natalie Jackson (38th, 21:26.5) and Gemma Sanchez (42nd, 21:55.2) and redshirt sophomore Brielle Collett (46th, 27:28.9).
The ACU men entered nine competitors at OSU and four of them finished among the top half of the individual standings. The Wildcats were led by sophomore Travis Nichols' 8K mark of 27:07.5 that was good for 26th place. His time was ACU's fastest in Stillwater since 2013 when senior Erik Forrister came across in 27:02.02.
Rounding out the Wildcats' top five were Paul (35th, 27:48.4), freshman Drew Cummings (37th, 27:55.1), Cleary (28:27.4) and rookie Lucas Bennett (43rd, 28:38.0). Paul's time was a 26.3 second improvement from his last appearance here in 2014, while Cleary completed the course 7.5 seconds faster.Â
Senior Reid Rivers placed 50th in 29:50.6 for an improvement of 21.5 seconds. Finishing behind him were Adam Plunk (31:04.2), Lincoln Jones (31:19.6) and John Baker (31:23.4).
