University of Houston Athletics
Cougars Head to American Championship Meet
10/29/2015 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
HOUSTON â€" The Houston Cougar men's and women's cross country team will head to Grimesland, N.C., to compete in the American Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Oct. 31, to begin postseason competition.
East Carolina will serve as the host institution for the 2015 conference meet, which will be held at Lake Kristi, a privately owned lake located just eight miles from Greenville, N.C. The course serves as the home venue for ECU cross country and has hosted four NCAA Regionals over the years. A full description of Lake Kristi can be found HERE.
Action at the American Conference Championships is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. CT, with the men's 8K, and will be followed by the women's 6K at approximately 9:50 a.m. The men will make four laps around the 2K course, while the women will make three trips around. The course map for the men can be found HERE, while the women's map can be found at this LINK.
THE ROAD TO NORTH CAROLINA
Houston began the season with a men's and women's sweep of the 2015 HBU Opener, where each squad defeated Sam Houston, Texas Southern and the host school Houston Baptist in both the overall competition and the head-to-head meetings. Junior Maddie Brown finished as the overall women's champion, taking first place in 11:56 and earning the American Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week Award. Brown has been Houston's top finisher for the women in four of the team's five meets in 2015.
A week later at the 40th Annual Rice Invitational, another Cougar would claim the overall championship, this time coming from the men's division and junior Brian Barraza. Barraza finished in 18:33.72 to claim the individual title and help the Cougar men to a second place finish, while the women would place third overall.
Two weeks later, Barraza claimed gold again after winning the Texas A&M Invitational in 23:28.5. Barraza has finished as Houston's top men's runner in all three of the meets he has competed in, including the Pre-National meet on Oct. 17, where the El Paso, Texas, native placed 25th in 23:42.4.
Throughout the 2015 season, 13 Cougars have finished meets within the top-10 including two from Barraza and Brown as well as one a piece from James Broussard, Blake Contreras, Gabe Lara, Edwin Munoz, G.J. Reyna, Jennifer Dunlap, Emely Morgado, Nikita Prasad and Meredith Sorensen.
A LOOK BACK AT 2014
The 2014 American Athletic Conference Championships saw significant improvement from year one to year two in conference competition for the Cougars. The men improved two sports overall with a third place finish in 2015 while the women jumped three spots to finish sixth.
Barraza placed fourth in Tulsa, Okla., at last year's conference meet to finish as the men's top finisher, while then freshman Ebony White was the women's top finisher in 16th.
FOLLOW ALONG LIVE
Live broadcasts of each of the men's and women's network will be available free of charge via The American Digital Network. Each of the races can be seen by following this LINK.
STAY CONNECTED
Follow Houston Cross Country on Twitter @UHCougarXC and "Like" /HoustonCougarCrossCountry on Facebook.
Players Mentioned
