XC returns to action Friday for UIW Invitational

Friday, January 29

San Antonio, Texas / Olmos Park

TBA

Abilene Christian

UIW Invitational

Denis Lagat competes in a race held Oct. 2018.

Photo by: Kenn White

XC returns to action Friday for UIW Invitational

1/28/2021 1:27:00 PM | Cross Country

ABILENE -- Abilene Christian's men's and women's cross country teams are scheduled to compete in their first spring race Friday, Jan. 29 at the UIW Invitational hosted by Live Oak's Main City Park. The women's 6K race starts at 4 p.m. followed by the men's 8K race at 4:30 p.m. Races are closed to the public.

This year's field includes Our Lady of the Lake plus current Southland Conference rivals UIW and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and future WAC rivals UTRGV and Tarleton State.

Traveling to the Alamo City suburb to represent the Purple and White will be Daniel Campos, Levi Chambers, Gabe Embree, Cooper Goggans, Luke Hernandez, Kevin Kipkosgei, Maxwel Kiplagat,Denis Lagat, Conner Miller, Seth Rodriguez, Gabe Trevino
and O'Brien Verdin from the men's team.

The ACU's women's roster will be composed of Sophia Castro, Briahna Gerlach, Hannah Marut, Irene Rono, Ariana Trevino, Sarah Wagler and Grace White.

Friday's meet is ACU's first since Oct. 17 when the Wildcats completed their three-race fall season by defeating Texas State and UTSA at the Naimadu Classic.

The ACU women swept the top three places that afternoon on their home course led by Rono's first-place 6K time of 21:38.6, while the men edged Texas State, 31-33, thanks to first and third-place showings from Kipkosgei (25:25.9) and Kiplagat (25:39.6).

Earlier in the fall both ACU teams fell to Baylor in a two-team dual. The Bears men's team clipped the Wildcats, 26-29, as it claimed the first, second and fourth-place points, and on the women's side senior Briahna Gerlach was the runner-up with a 5K mark of 17:27.7.