United Athletic Conference

Nine schools will head out to their respective NCAA Regional meets on Friday. The majority of schools will be in Waco, Texas with Abilene Christian, Lamar, Sam Houston, Stephen F. Austin and UT Rio Grande heading to the NCAA South Central Regionals. Grand Canyon and Seattle U will race each other at the NCAA West Regionals in Sacramento, Calif. while NM State and Utah Valley will run at the NCAA Mountain Regionals in Provo, Utah.

 

Two years after the CBU women made WAC history with a perfect score, it was the Lancer men's chance to make history, earning a sweep of the top five spots to post a perfect score of 15 to win the men's team title. CBU's Florian LePallec won the individual title, covering the 8k course in 23:18.5. Teammates Ivo Balabanov (23:35.6) and Giedrius Valincius (23:51.0) rounded out on the top three.

 

On the women's side, Utah Valley earned a not-quite-upset victory, returning to the top of the standings with a score of 34, led by four runners in the top-10. Abilene Christian's Irene Rono won the 6k race in a time of 19:44.2, followed by CBU'as Greta Karinauskaite (19:50.9) and UVU's Caila Odekirk (20:12.5).

 

Five men's teams and four women's teams are listed in the most recent USTFCCCA Regional Cross Country Rankkings. In the Mountain region, Utah Valley is ranked 10th in both polls while NM State is also ranked 13th on the women's side. Three men's teams are ranked in the South Central men's poll, with Lamar leading the way at eighth. Sam Houston is 12th and Abilene Christian is 13th. On the women's side, Abilene Christian is ranked third. Finally, in the West Region, the California Baptist men are ranked seventh while the CBU women are ranked 10th.

 

The 2021 Cross Country National Championships are set to return to their normal format and will take place in Tallahassee, Fla., on Nov. 20. The race is hosted by Florida State and will take place at Apalachee Regional Park.

 

The U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) announced its 2020 All-Academic Teams for the 2020 season and 10 different WAC schools were honored.

 

Among those teams that received the award, both the men's and women's programs from Abilene Christian, California Baptist, Seattle U, UT Rio Grande Valley and Utah Valley were honored. The women's programs from Grand Canyon, Lamar and NM State also earned honors. In addition, individual athletes from Sam Houston and Stephen F. Austin were recognized. 

 

In order to earn honors, a team's cumulative GPA must be 3.0 or higher on a 4.0 scale.

 

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 or have participated in any round of the NCAA Division I Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

 

WAC-newcomer Abilene Christian had three honored as Sean Germany, Jack Marshall and Avery Williams represented the Wildcats. GCU also had three honored with Jacob Lewis, Jesse Newman and Josh Onwordi as did Utah Valley, who had Caleb Furnell, Andre Jones and Isaac Manning earn honors. Sam Houston was recognized by Eric Callaway and Clayton Fritsch and Stephen F. Austin was represented by Chad Horstmann and Cord Neal. UT Rio Grande Valley was the final school to haveX a male athlete honored as Paul May earned recognition.

 

On the women's side, Abilene Christian led the way with six recognized as Ella Anttila, Annina Brandenburg, Payton Kirk, Irene Rono, Zoe Spinn and Taylor Toelen were recognized. GCU had five honored with Megan Fry, Paige Hildenbrandt, Madelyn Lundberg, Alyson Schwartz and Niki Xydona representing the Lopes. Stephen F. Austin was represented by the trio of Kayle Bizzell, Mathilde Coquillaud-Salomon and Nissi Kabongo. Three schools had two honored with NM State's Yemisi Oroyinyin and Terice Steen, Sam Houston's Alie Angelo and Halie Daniel and UT Rio Grande Valley's Desirea Buerge and Tamara Woodley all receiving the award. Lamar was represented by Parl Eelma and UVU's Hannah Branch earned honors

 

Across Division I, more than 850 men and 1,110 women received honors.