United Athletic Conference

 

California Baptist's Florian Le Pallec and Greta Karinauskaite have been named the TicketSmarter Western Athletic Conference Men's and Women's Cross Country Athletes of the Week, respectively, for September 14 through September 20.

 

Le Pallec, a senior from Kervignac, France, spearheaded the Lancers' second team win of the young season as he took second overall at the UC Riverside Invitational. He completed the eight-kilometer course in just 23 minutes, 40.7 seconds to earn the runner-up position in a field of 188 competitors. Le Pallec topped his personal best by nearly three seconds to record the second-fastest 8K time in CBU history.

 

Karinauskaite, a sophomore from Šiauliai, Lithuania, set a new Lancer record to finish atop the podium at the UC Riverside Invitational. She led CBU to a team win behind a 6K time of 20:19.0 to finish ahead of 172 other runners from the likes of Arizona, USC, Arizona State, Long Beach State, Pepperdine and others. This also marks Karinauskaite's personal best and gives her three of CBU's top-25 times in program history.

 

Other Men's Nominees: Abilene Christian's Levi Chambers helped lead the Wildcats to a team win as he notched a team-best eighth-place finish at the Naimadu Classic, turning in an 8K time of 25:26.8… NM State's Anekin Hetman took sixth in the first home meet of his Aggie career, finishing with a time of 15:09.67 on the 5K course… Utah Valley's Britain Reynolds came away from the OSU Cowboy Jamboree with an 8K time of 24:34.0 to finish 31st in a field of 187 runners… UT Rio Grande Valley's Alex Munoz secured a fourth-place finish at the Westside Classic in San Antonio, completing the 8K course in 27:11.1.

 

Other Women's Nominees: Abilene Christian's Irene Rono posted a first-place finish as she led ACU to its first team win of the season, crossing the finish line at 21:52.1 (6.2K)… NM State's Emily Stutesman had a strong outing at the Lori Fitzgerald Memorial Open, crossing in sixth-place with a time of 17:44.62 in the 5K race… UT Rio Grande Valley's Aaliyah Garza posted a personal record of 24:10.5 in the 6K race to finish in second place at the Westside Classic… Utah Valley's Maddie Bench Empey paced all Wolverines at the OSU Cowboy Jamboree, finishing with a time of 21:20.9 to place 11th in a very competitive field.

 

Only three WAC schools are slated to compete this week as Grand Canyon, Tarleton and Utah Valley hit the courses. The Lopes will head north to Minneapolis, Minn., to compete in the Roy Griak Invitational on Friday. Meanwhile, Saturday's schedule features Tarleton in College Station, Texas, as the Texans are set to run in the Texas A&M Invitational. The Wolverines are also preparing for a race on Saturday when they compete in the Idaho State Invitational.

 

Four men's teams and three women's teams were listed in the USTFCCCA Regional Cross Country Week 3 Rankings. Both the men's and women's programs for Utah Valley were recognized in the Mountain Region as the men ranked ninth and the women ranked seventh. California Baptist also has both programs ranked, with the men coming in at eighth in the West Region and the women slotted in ninth. Abilene Christian was the WAC's third school to land two programs inside the regional rankings as the Wildcats' men's team ranks 14th in the South Central Region and the women's team ranks ninth. Lamar also had its men's teams represented in the South Central Region as the Cardinals claimed the 12th spot.

 

The 2021 WAC Cross Country Championships are set to take place at UC Riverside Agricultural Operations in Riverside, Calif. Last year, California Baptist completed the sweep as they claimed WAC titles on the men's and women's sides. This marked only the 10th time in WAC history that a school's men's and women's teams hoisted the WAC trophy. California Baptist also became just the fifth school in WAC history to achieve such a feat.

 

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 have 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.