ABILENE, Texas – The regular season is over, and the UT Arlington cross country teams are prepared to compete in the 2023 WAC Championships on Friday morning hosted by Abilene Christian.
 
TOURNAMENT INFO
The action is scheduled to begin with the men's championship 8K at 8 a.m. followed by the women's championship 6K at 8:45 a.m. from Zoe Park in Abilene, Texas. Admission to the championships meet is free and open to the public. Spectators can park opposite the park on the other side of N 10th St.
 
Rain is forecasted throughout Friday, with light rainfall in the morning in East Texas, so any changes will be posted on UTAMavs.com and/or the program's official Twitter account @UTAMavsTFXC.
 
Links to live results for both the men's and women's races can be found attached to this release as well on the schedule page. There will be no live streaming broadcast of the event.
 
WOMEN'S RACE
In 2022, UTA's second season in the WAC, first since 2012-13, the Maverick women finished 10th overall with 291 points. This season, the Mavs are picked to finish fourth in the WAC Pre-Championship polls behind California Baptist, Utah Valley, and Southern Utah. Last season, the women's roster featured one upperclassman while this season, the Mavs have a good mixture of experience with youth with the roster of 11 featuring four upperclassmen.
 
Matro Jepkemboi is quickly making a name for herself in the cross country world. The freshman from Eldoret, Kenya has already accumulated two WAC Women's Cross Country Athlete of the Week awards and has finished in the top six in all four meets she's competed in.
 
Expect to see a good race ran by Winnie Kipsang and Mercy Biwott as well, the pair along with Jepkemboi have paced the Mavs all season long with eight top-10 finishes amongst the trio.
 
Lauren Walls-Portillo picked up right where she left last season by being a stable and reliable finisher for the Mavs with two top-10 finishes this season as well as one top-15 finish.
 
In five regular season races this year, the women have three top three team finishes as well as a school best fourth-place finish in the massive Chile Pepper Festival hosted by Arkansas.
 
MEN'S RACE
In 2022, the Maverick men finished fourth overall with 187 points. In this season's WAC Pre-Championship polls, the men are picked to finish fourth for the second straight season, behind California Baptist, Southern Utah, and Utah Valley. 
 
Out of five regular season meets, the Mavs have three top-three team finishes on the year.
 
Heading into the WAC Championships, the men are firing on all cylinders, with five athletes posting PRs in the 8k at the last regular season meet, the Arturo Barrios Invitational. The five Mavs are as follows: Patrick Estes (24:15.0), Jackson Cichon (24:47.6), Jacob Freeman (25:54.8), Brian Guevara (24:50.5) and Brandon Wilk (25:45.8). Josue Granados ran a personal best in the 8k at the second to last meet of the season, the Texas A&M Invitational, where he posted a time of 25:18.4.
 
NEXT UP
Following the WAC Championships, qualifiers will next race at the NCAA South Central Regional on Friday, November 10, from Agri Park in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
   
FOLLOW ALONG
Follow the UTA track and field and cross country teams on Twitter (@UTAMavsTFXC), Instagram (@UTAMavsTFXC) and Facebook (/UTAMavsTFXC).