United Athletic Conference

California Baptist's Ivo Balabanov and Anna Mate have been named the TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Men's and Women's Cross Country Athletes of the Week, respectively, for January 18 through January 24.

 

Balabanov, a senior from Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria, paced CBU in his cross country debut, taking second place overall at the Dixie State Invite to help the Lancers earn a third-place team finish. He covered the 8k course in a school-record 23:45.3 to finish less than five seconds out of the lead.  As a team, the Lancers finished behind Utah State and 16th-ranked Southern Utah and ahead of fellow WAC members Utah Valley and host Dixie State. 

 

Mate, a junior from Kaposvár, Hungary, placed third at the Dixie State Invite to lead the 30th-ranked Lancers to a second-place team finish. The two-time All-WAC harrier covered the 6k course in 20:43.7 as CBU finished behind just Utah State in the team standings. 

 

Other Men's Nominees: Dixie State's Kevin Kirk finished 37th at the Dixie State Invitational to lead the Trailblazer men in their first D1 race … Utah Valley's Britain Reynolds placed 15th with a time of 24:25.6 in the 8k at the Dixie State Invitational to lead Utah Valley to a fourth-place team finish.

 

Other Women's Nominees: Dixie State's Madison Flippence led the Trailblazers in their first D1 race, taking 26th place with a time of 22:03.3 … Utah Valley's Maddie Bench Empey finished fifth individually in the 6k at the Dixie State Invite with a time of 20:48.3 to help the Wolverines earn a third-place team finish.

 

After California Baptist, Dixie State and Utah Valley opened the pandemic-delayed season last weekend, four more schools open up the season this week. Tarleton and UT Rio Grande Valley will meet up at the UIW Invitational in San Antonio on Friday and two days later, Seattle U will make the trip south to take on University of Portland in a dual race. On Monday, Dixie State and Utah Valley will be in Las Vegas where they will be joined by Grand Canyon for the UNLV Invitational.

 

The USTFCCCA will release the first regional rankings on Feburary 1 but the California Baptist women have already seen their name in print, ranking 30th in the final national poll of the fall.

 

The 2020-21 WAC Cross Country Championships are headed back to Seattle and will take place at Jefferson Park Golf Course in Seattle. Last year, the CBU women made history, posting the first perfect score in conference history and will head to Seattle as the two-time champs. On the men's side, Utah Valley will look to defend its title once again.

 

The NCAA Cross Country Championships will look a little different this spring. Instead of qualifying via NCAA Regionals, which will return this fall, teams will be selected by the NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Track and Field and Cross Country Committee. The committee will select 31 at-large teams for both men and women and the top eligible individual finisher at each conference championship who is not part of a qualifying team will advance to the NCAA championship. The 2020-21 NCAA Cross Country Championships will be held on March 15 at OSU Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Okla.

 

The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced its 2020 All-Academic Teams for the 2020 season and seven different WAC schools were honored.

 

Among those teams that received the award, both the men's and women's programs from California Baptist, Grand Canyon, Seattle U and Utah Valley were honored. The women's programs from NM State and UT Rio Grande Valley also earned recognition. In addition, WAC newcomer Tarleton was also honored at the Division II level with the Texans' men's team garnering the award.

 

For the second consecutive year, the CBU women's team claimed the highest grade-point average among WAC teams, posting a 3.726 cumulative GPA.

 

In total, 264 different women's programs and 199 different men's programs were honored across Division I.

 

Several individual student-athletes were also honored, earning All-Academic honors by holding a minimum 3.25 cumulative GPA and either finishing the season ranked in the top 96 nationally or in the top 48 in any championship relay event during the most recent indoor season.

 

The Grand Canyon, Tarleton and Utah Valley men's teams each had one honoree as Grant Carpenter represented the Lopes, Larry Still earned recognition for the Wolverines, and Colton Troutman was honored for the Texans.

 

On the women's side, GCU had three representatives while two members of the Tarleton State team were recognized. The Lopes' Madelyn Lundberg, Alyson Schwartz and Niki Xydona earned the honor while Jasmine McQuirter and Kylee Ponder represented Tarleton.

 

Across Division I, 452 men and 659 women received honors.