Wildcats with WAC warmup at Weis-Crockett

Saturday, October 15

Stillwater, Okla.

9:50 a.m.

Abilene Christian

Weis-Crockett Invitational

Photo by: Cassie Kelley

10/13/2022 4:37:00 PM | Cross Country

Race Central

ABILENE, Texas - Abilene Christian will once again be part of a massive cross country field Saturday for the Oklahoma State-hosted Weis-Crockett Invitational, which serves as the pre-national meet ahead of the Nov. 19 NCAA Championships.

This event also is the Wildcats' final tune-up leading into the Oct. 29 WAC Championships hosted by SFA.

Approximately 400 runners representing 29 schools are expected to line up on The Greiner Family Cross Country Course, including the host Cowgirls and Cowboys, who are respectively ranked third and fourth nationally. OSU is one of eleven Power 5 schools listed on the program that also features ACU WAC rivals Cal Baptist (No. 19 women, No. 29 men) and Southern Utah, plus east coast institutions Yale, Pittsburgh and Liberty – the alma mater of head coach Jarvis Jelen.

Races begin at 8:30 a.m. with the men's 8K orange race followed by the women's 6K. Open races commence afterward

"This is another chance for us to gain big-meet experience," said Jelen, "and iron out some of the some tactical errors we made at Chile Pepper before we get to conference and nationals. Entering this weekend most of the work is done and the fitness gained. Now we need to race like we train, run in tighter packs and move up a bit. That means starting well and staying aggressive instead of waiting to do so. We can't get broken up."

ACU faced many of these same teams two weeks ago at Arkansas' Chile Pepper Festival. The Wildcats' women's team - ranked No. 9 in the South Central Region - placed eighth of 31 schools with 297 points led by their senior dynamo Irene Rono, who finished third overall (276 runners) with a 5K time of 16:19.1. Earlier this year the native Kenyan won consecutive races hosted by SFA (15:536, 3M) and ACU (13:41.9, 4K) in helping the Wildcats place first and third

The Chile Pepper results also included a top-50 finish from freshman Kate Williams and upper-half showings from junior Prudence Kiyeng and first-year harriers Peyton Bornstein and Isabella Evans. On the men's side, fifth-year senior Levi Chambers led the men's team with his 42nd-place 8K time (356 runners) of 24:43.9.

"Levi is our men's team's clear front-runner who did well at Chile Pepper despite being sick," said Jelen. "Now we have him at 100 percent and I'm positive he'll hold up better and compete well against this field. For Irene, this is a great opportunity for her to compete at the front of the pack against the All-Americans. She's been to this course previously and I'm sure she'll race everyone well. This is her prep for conference and nationals, both of which will be very hard."

Rono last competed in Stillwater during the COVID-postponed March 2021 NCAA XC Championships, placing 110th of 256 runners with a time of 21:33.3. The on-campus course, which opened in 2019, is carved throughout wooded areas and prairie with varying elevations. The course also was widened to 10-plus meters throughout and the new starting straightaway is 850 meters.

"The layout of the course is great and the footing is amazing," said Jelen. "The biggest challenge though is the hills, most of which have long and gradual climbs. There's also one steep one. But that combination of rolling hills can induce fatigue and break people."