Men’s and women’s cross country officially returns to the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor after a 17-year absence this weekend. The Cru men’s and women’s cross country teams will open the 2018 season with a trip to Longview to compete in the LeTourneau University Invitational on Friday night. It will be the first time UMHB has competed in cross country since the NCAA Regional Meet in November of 2001.
The women and men will both run a 5K Friday night. The women are scheduled to start at 7:30 PM with the men to follow at 8:00 PM. Cru Head Coach Alex Aldaco expects to have 14 women and seven men compete in that opening meet. As is so often the case with a first-year program, this will be the first collegiate event for those runners. After three weeks of training to prepare for the season opener, Aldaco is looking forward to the chance to see his teams in action and knows there will be a learning curve for his runners.
“It is going to be different, it is going to be different from high school, fur sure,” Aldaco said. “It will be much more competitive but I expect to see a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of competition from our runners. I am excited to see that UMHB uniform out there and I think the future is bright over the next couple of years.”
The LeTourneau meet is the first of six meets on the regular season schedule for the UMHB men and women’s cross country teams. After Friday night’s meet, the Cru men and women will return to action with the U.T. Tyler Braveheart Invitational on September 7th.
