ARLINGTON – Coming off an immensely-truncated 2020 COVID season, the UT Arlington men's and women's cross country teams unveiled a more traditional 2021 schedule on Monday.
 
After competing in just two regular-season meets last year, UTA is slated to race in five this fall in advance of the Sun Belt Conference Championships.
 
It all gets underway in San Antonio the evening of Friday, Sept. 3, at the Incarnate Word Twilight. The Mavericks will then head home for their UTA Season Opener on Saturday, Sept. 11.
 
For the first time since 2018, the Mavs will return to Lynn Creek Park at Joe Pool Lake in Grand Prairie for the home meet, which is scheduled to begin at 7:30 a.m. with the women's 5k followed by the men's 4 mile.
 
After those two campaign-opening races, UTA prepares for a challenging closing stretch to prepare them for the conference championships. The Mavs begin the swing at Oklahoma State's Cowboy Jamboree (Sept. 18) before taking a week off and then heading to the Arkansas Chile Pepper Festival (Oct. 2). The regular-season finale takes place in College Station at Texas A&M's Arturo Barrios Invitational (Oct. 16).
 
"As we aim to return to normal, a more ambitious schedule than what we've had in the past goes hand-in-hand, and that's exactly what we've done to help prepare both our men and women to race themselves into shape," said 33-time Conference Coach of the Year John Sauerhage. "With relatively-young teams, we wanted to make sure that we competed in as many top-flight meets as we could to provide as much exposure to high-level Division-I competition. That will prepare both teams for the conference and NCAA meets, in addition to getting them acclimated for the indoor and outdoor track seasons."
 
That Sun Belt Championship date is set for Friday, Oct. 29, which is a deviation from the typical Saturday slot. The meet will once again be held outside Mobile, Ala., in Foley at South Alabama's USA-Brookley Gulf Pines Golf Course.
 
The NCAA South Central Regional in Waco is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 12, hosted by Baylor. The NCAA Championships are slated for Saturday, Nov. 20, hosted by Florida State in Tallahassee.
 
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