2023-2024: Cross Country – has continued improving since his arrival at ACU. Ran as the #2 ACU finisher
in three meets: the Chile Pepper XC Festival in Fayetteville; placing 5 th  overall at the ACU Naimadu Classic
with an 8K PR time of 24:50; and then, finishing 41 st  at the WAC Championship – an improvement of 45
places from 2022. Also ran a new 10K PR time of 32:48 in finishing 111 th  in the South Central Region
meet. Indoors – placed 12 th at the Charlie Thomas Invitational in College Station in the 5k with a indoor
PR time of 15:08.36, but did not compete at the indoor WAC Championship. Outdoors – kicked off the
outdoor season placing 3 rd in ACU’s Wes Kittley Invitational in the 5K with a new PR of 14:56.34. Later in
the year, he placed 3 rd in the 10K at the Bobcat Invitational at Texas State with a new PR of 31:31.50,
before finishing 13 th in the WAC Championship 10K.

2022-2023: Cross Country – ran the Big Country XC Festival unattached planning to redshirt the season,
but the redshirt was removed after that meet and Samuel ran in the remaining 5 XC meets for ACU –
running in the top-7 finishers for ACU in all 5 races. Finished the season by placing 87 th  at the WAC
Conference meet and 157 th  at the South Central Region Championship. Indoors – placed 6 th  in the TTU
Red Raider Open 3K and 7 th  in the Pittsburg State Inv 5K, but did not compete in the WAC indoor
championship. Outdoors – redshirted, but ran in 3 meets unattached, including a PR of 4:05.14 in the
1500 at the Oliver Jackson Twilight meet and a 5K PR of 15:12.02 at the J Fred Duckett Inv hosted by Rice
University.

Before ACU: Running for Marshall County HS in Benton, KY, Samuel placed 22 nd  in the KY Region I-3A XC
in the fall of 2020. On the track in the spring of 2022, he placed 4 th  in the 1600 and 8 th  in the 3200 at the
KY Region 1-3A meet. At the KY state meet that same year, Samuel ran the 3 rd  leg on the winning Class
3A 4x800 relay. In 2022, he also received the award of Most Improved Athlete at Marshall County HS.
Personal: Graduated from Marshall County HS in Benton, KY, in spring 2022. At ACU, he is a double
major in Information Systems and Accounting at ACU. He was on the Dean’s List in the Fall, 2023 and
Spring, 2024. At home in Kentucky, Samuel has been an active volunteer at his home church, the Benton
Church of Christ. At ACU, he is an active volunteer at Simple Charity, ACU Chapter. His Mother is Kelly
Mathis and his Father is James Lanham. Samuel has 2 brothers – Andrew and Isaac – and 1 sister – Ruth.

Favorite thing about ACU: “I love how committed everyone at ACU is to elevating the school to new
levels and how passionate they are about the school’s mission.”