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https://ucasports.com/news/2023/9/16/womens-cross-country-both-mens-and-womens-teams-earn-first-in-nashville.aspx


Our first meet is so early it is very hard to assess team strength...2nd meet was today at the course in Nashville area that ASUN meet will be run on......UCA won each men's and women's meet easily...field of teams was pretty weak....at least we got a good look at the conference course....two SugarBears were under 18 minutes for 5k...Madeline Hill in 2nd at 17:28 and Sara Steimel in 7th at 17:48.....good times for UCA but D1 top runners go sub 16....Jack Dingman was 2nd at 25:10 on the 8k course and Pete Johnson was 4th at 25:19.....8k is just short of 5 miles....top D1 times would be sub-24...UCA top 3 best ever about 24:15 (2 in recent years and other in 1969!)....

Chile Pepper Festival in Fayetteville coming up will give a good look at how the team really performs....legit NCAA caliber course.....

In XC the only meets that really count are conferences and NCAAs....others are for getting ready for those...

https://ucasports.com/news/2023/9/29/mens-cross-country-bears-place-6th-10th-at-chile-pepper-festival.aspx

Very hot afternoon at Fayetteville....still some good times over the Women's 5K and Men's 8K courses.....SugarBears were 6th out of 10 teams and Bears were 10th out of 20.....first, this is a "fair course".....that is, measured for proper distance and a nice mix of small rises, flats and good footing....second, the field of teams did not have the D1 heavy weights that sometimes come (such as Ok State) but some solid XC programs from different levels (such as SMU, Western Colorado) but otherwise this field seemed to be built for Arkansas to get a big "home win" which they certainly did....thought the Bears would have done better......

SugarBears had some noteworthy finishes...Madeline Hill in 14th at 17:26 and Sarah Steimel in 24th at 17:40...good to see Ali Nachtigal keep pushing her PR closer to 18:00.....

Jack Dingman led Bears in 26th place at 24:58....at least the team had their Top 4 pretty c lose in a 40 second spread...got to get the 5th runner into that group to do well at ASUN...

For comparison of times over the years....the 1969 AIC XC champion from UCA (actually SCA) ran a true 5 Miles on the old Hendrix Course (similar to the Agri Park Course) in 24:30..that would be about 24:15 for 8k....the UCA best over 8K was set a couple years ago at about 24:10 by one of the twins....top D1 women run about 15:30-16 minutes for 5k.....

Got to get some work done before ASUN....that would be at the Crimson Tide Classic next Friday at Tuscaloosa....

ASUN meet is 10/28 at Nashville....

Was able to watch both races....top two teams auto qualify for Nationals....Texas nipped Arkansas in the men's (although Arkansas rested the top line other than 1-2 runners who finished 1-2) and Arkansas easily won over Texas A&M....very competitive region at the top but not the best region overall....

Bears and SugarBears had their moments and achievements but still a long way to go to challenge the top teams....article below highlights top UCA perfromances.....

While meaningless...just considering the old Southland teams, UCA was 3rd in each race....that is probably one of the best finishes vs Southland teams...


https://ucasports.com/news/2023/11/10/mens-cross-country-bears-set-11-prs-at-the-south-central-region-championships.aspx

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The University of Central Arkansas Men's and Women's Cross Country teams traveled to Agri Park this Friday to compete in the NCAA South Central Region Championships.

The women's team finished 13th out of 24 teams and the men's team finished 17th out of 25 teams.

For the men's team, Pete Johnson and Jack Dingman earned a spot on the UCA record list for the top-5 10K times, earning the #3 and #4 spot respectively.

Personal Records Set
Felisa Saheib Pete Johnson Ky Bickford
Ali Nachtigal Jack Dingman Beau Melancon
Sequoya Prentice Thomas Cain Gavin Frick
Jewel Baer Carlos Hernandez

Women's Results
Leading the women's team, Madeline Hill finished 36th with a time of 21:40.9 in the 6K race. Felisa Saheib finished 73rd with a personal record time of 22:27.3, Ali Nachtigal finished 94th with a personal record time of 22:45.3, and Sequoya Prentice finished 107th with a personal record time of 22:56.7. With a personal record time of 23:14.0, Jewel Baer finished 120th and Emma Selph finished 139th out of 180 athletes with a time of 23:34.1.

Men's Results
Leading the men's team, Pete Johnson finished 49th with a personal record time of 31:07.6 in the 10K race. Jack Dingman was close behind in 56th with a personal record time of 31:27.5. Thomas Cain finished 104th with a personal record time of 32:38.2 and Carlos Hernandez finished 112th with a personal record time of 32:51.8. Finishing 138th, Ky Bickford had a personal record time of 33:31.6 and Beau Melancon finished close behind in 143rd with a personal record time of 33:39.3. Gavin Frick finished 158th out of 172 athletes with a personal record time of 34:34.0.

Live Results: https://results.flashresults.com/2023_1 ... /index.htm

From the Coach – Head Coach Josey Weaver
"Our women started the day off on a high note scoring 311 points less than a year ago. I'm so happy of their growth and progress. The fact that we were able to jump to 13th place from second to last a year ago affirms that we are headed in the right direction as a program. Now we take a short break before starting up with our indoor track season.
On the men's side, we had two great performances. Pete Johnson and Jack Dingman became the #3 and #4 all time performers here at UCA. Our lack of depth showed as our team finished in the middle of the pack. We were hoping for more. I would love to improve on this finish in the years to come. Indoor track will be here before we know it and out attention will now shift towards getting ready for our first meet at the University of Arkansas on January 12th."

Women's Team Scores
Arkansas – 36
Texas A&M – 90
LSU – 129
Tulane – 139
Texas – 143
SMU – 143
Arkansas State – 166
UT-Arlington – 215
Texas Christian – 223
Rice – 259
New Orleans – 301
Lamar – 347
Central Arkansas – 383
Stephen F. Austin – 406
McNeese State – 423
North Texas – 452
ULM – 486
Little Rock – 513
Abilene Christian – 521
Texas A&M-CC – 536
UT-Rio Grande Valley – 547
Louisiana – 551
Sam Houston – 671
Nicholls State – 672

Men's Team Scores
Texas – 34
Arkansas – 52
Tulane – 77
Arkansas State – 157
Incarnate Word – 157
Texas A&M – 178
Rice – 187
Sam Houston – 276
UT-Arlington – 292
Little Rock – 302
Houston – 312
North Texas – 316
Texas Christian – 345
New Orleans – 351
Abilene Christian – 399
ULM – 432
Central Arkansas – 439
TexasA&M-CC - 474
McNeese State – 495
Baylor – 522
Stephen F. Austin – 529
Texas State – 554
UT-Rio Grande Valley – 587
Louisiana – 644
Nicholls State - 776