ACU Hosting WAC Championships Friday

Friday, October 27

Abilene

Abilene Christian

WAC Championship

Photo by: Natalie Wright

10/25/2023 2:11:00 PM | Cross Country

By: Ray Fink

ABILENE – The moment Abilene Christian's cross country teams have been training for this season has arrived and the Wildcats host the Western Athletic Conference Championships on Friday at Zoe Park on EN 10th Street.

The men's race begins at 8 a.m. with the women to follow at 8:45 a.m. Fans are asked to park in the area across the street from the course on the north side of EN 10^th.

Abilene Christian is represented on Friday in the men's race by Kevin Castruita, Gabe Embree, Mikhail Fortner, Samuel Lanham, Zach Martin, Jacob Russell, Garrison Shindler and O'Brien Verdin.

The nine entrants for the ACU women are Peyton Bornstein, Katelyn Coldicott, Bella Evans, Kate Hansen, Tessa Holderman, Georgia Lee, Hadley Phillips, Autumn Smith and Kate Williams.

California Baptist is the favorite in both races. The Lancers are ranked fifth nationally in the men's poll and 12th in the women's.

In a WAC coaches' poll released this afternoon, ACU is not expected to be in the top five of either race.

Following CBU in the men's race the WAC coaches have Southern Utah in second, followed by Utah Valley, Texas-Arlington at Grand Canyon.

CBU also tops the WAC women's poll with UVU in second, followed by Southern Utah, UTA and GCU.

The Wildcats have a slight advantage, having run the course in competition two weeks ago in the Naimadu Classic.

The ACU men won the race with Castruita leading the way in third place at 24:34.47 on the eight-kilometer course. Lanham was fifth at 24:50, Embree was sixth at 25:00, Shindler was ninth at 25:15 and O'Brien Verdin finished 10th to round at the scoring 10 at 25:18. Fortner placed 13th at 25:58, Russell was 14th at 26:01 and Martin 15th at 26:21.

The ACU women were second in that race, finishing just behind Oral Roberts. Coldicott was third at 22:26 and Holderman was fourth at 22:41. Bornstein was seventh at 22:48, Evans was eighth at 22:50 and Smith finished out the scoring five in 10th at 23:16. Williams was 11th at 23:26, Hansen was 12th at 23:30 and Phillips was 22nd at 24:41.