NEW ORLEANS – Following a quartet of personal records set at the Western Athletic Conference Championship over the weekend, the UT Arlington men's cross country team remains in its season-high ranking of 8th place in the USTFCCCA South Central Region Poll released Monday.
 
It marks the second-straight time UTA has been ranked 8th by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The Mavericks were not ranked in the Week 1 poll, but made their 2022 debut in Week 2 at #13 and remained in the poll at #14 in Week 3 before falling out in Week 4.
 
However, the Mavs bounced back with the biggest jump of the 15 teams in the Week 5 poll, going from unranked to 8th, which is where they remain in Week 6 following conference championship meets and prior to NCAA regionals.
 
UTA is the highest-placing Western Athletic Conference member in the region, ahead of Stephen F. Austin (13th) and Sam Houston (T-15th).
 
At the WAC Championship on Saturday morning, freshman Rogelio Aguirre paced UTA to a 4th-place finish in the 8k with 187 points. That performance bettered a predicted 5th-place showing for the Mavs as voted on by the league's coaches in the pre-championship poll earlier in the week.
 
Racing in the WAC Championship for the first time since winning it in their only other appearance back in 2012, the Mavs had the same trio comprise their top-3 finishers for the fifth time in as many races this year: Aguirre (24:30.0), Patrick Estes (24:30.1) and Alfredo Reina Corona (24:50.9).
 
For Aguirre, the Mission, Texas, native crossed as UTA's top performer for the first time in his career. Estes, meanwhile, was just one-tenth of a second behind, and in the process registered a PR as the junior trimmed 15 seconds off his previous best set two weeks ago on the same course as part of Stephen F. Austin's Lumberjack Collegiate Invitational.
 
The final four scorers for UTA were sophomore Jeriel Algarin Marquez (24:56.5), freshman Brian Guevara (25:04.8), junior Jacob Ye (25:10.8) and senior Tyler Rodriguez (25:28.6). That quartet included another three PRs as Guevara (25:16.1 – set at SFA earlier this month), Ye (25:25.9) and Rodriguez (25:42.2) all surpassed their previous fastest collegiate 8k times.
 
Qualifiers will next race at the NCAA South Central Regional on Friday, Nov. 11, from the Watts Cross Country Course in Bryan-College Station.
 
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