PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The 2016 American Athletic Conference Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships, hosted by the University of Cincinnati, will take place Saturday, Oct. 29, at the Voice of America Metropark in West Chester Township, Ohio, located on the north side of Cincinnati.
The championships start with the women’s 6K race at 10:00 a.m. ET/9 a.m. CT, and will be followed by the men’s 8K race at 10:50 a.m. ET/9:50 a.m. CT. The awards ceremony will begin at approximately 11:40 a.m. ET/10:40 a.m. CT. The women’s and men’s race will be streamed live on the
American Digital Network.
The women’s championship meet will feature five teams ranked in the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) National and Regional rankings.
SMU comes in to the meet as the No. 30 team in the national coaches ranking and is No. 3 in the South Central Region. The Mustangs have been led by two freshmen, Hannah Miller and Charlotte-Tara Murphy as well as senior Holly Archer, who finished last year’s championship in seventh place. Murphy won the Gerald Richey Invitational, while Miller led the Mustangs in both the Virginia Invitational and Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, finishing third and 21
st in the two competitive meets. At Virginia and Wisconsin, SMU beat multiple nationally ranked squads.
Tulsa, the defending American Athletic Conference champion, is ranked No. 6 in the Midwest Region and picked up a meet win at the Cowboy Jamboree the year. The Golden Hurricane are led by senior Clara Langley who won the Cowboy Jamboree and finished 74
th at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational. Langley, who finished 14
th in last year’s championships, will be joined by Stacie Taylor and Nicole Lee, who finished fifth and sixth in last year’s meet, respectively.
Tulane is ranked No. 9 in the South Central Region and won the AllState Sugar Bowl Cross Country Festival early in the season. Emma Newton has been the leader for the Green Wave, winning the LSU Cross Country Invitational and finishing 15
th in the Stanford Cross Country Invitational. Newton finished 17
th in last year’s championship and junior Lauren Bartels finished in 26
th place.
Houston is the third team ranked in the South Central Region, earning the No. 12 spot. After not competing last year, Selena Sierra has been the top finisher for Houston in four meets, including a second place finish at the SFA Lumberjack Preview. Alongside Sierra will be junior Maddie Brown, who finished 24
th in last year’s meet and took home a meet win at the HBU Invitational earlier this season.
Memphis is the fifth team ranked on the women’s side bringing in a No. 10 ranking in the South Region. The Tigers won the Rhodes College Invitational and Austin Peay Invitational this season and were led by Martina Rodriguez Sala. Rodriguez Sala finished in the top-four in four meets this year including an individual title at the Rhodes College Invitational. The senior finished fourth in last year’s championship.
Other notable runners in the women’s meet include Anne-Marie Blaney from UCF, who won three individual titles this season, as well as Holly Wooley, who finished 16
th in last year’s meet. Senior Hannah Christ and sophomore Grace O’Donnell will lead Cincinnati. East Carolina is sending Caroline Reiser, who finished 15
th last year and Grace Sullivan who took home 27
th place in last season’s meet. Jessica Taylor is the best returning finisher for USF from a season ago when she finished 19
th as a freshman and teammate Melissa Westmoreland has finished first or second on the team in all four meets this season. Temple’s Catherine Pinson is back after finishing 25
th in last year’s championship.
In the men’s meet, four teams come in to The American Championship nationally and regionally ranked by the USTFCCCA.
Tulsa, the defending American Athletic Conference champion, is ranked No. 22 nationally and No. 3 in the Midwest Region. The Golden Hurricane brings back three runners that finished in the top five of last year’s championship. Junior Ben Preisner, senior Luke Traynor and senior Adam Roderique finished second, third and fifth last year in North Carolina. Traynor has been the leader for Tulsa, finishing 11
th at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational and fourth at the Cowboy Jamboree.
Cincinnati owns the next highest ranking in the regional rankings, coming in to the meet with a No. 13 ranking in the Great Lakes Region. The Bearcats had a strong showing at the Pre-National Invitational with a third-place finish as a team in the White division race. Juniors Toby Loveridge and Dan Huben led Cincinnati this season as Loveridge took home an eighth place finish at the All-Ohio Championships and Huben finished fourth at the Queen City Invitational. Loveridge will look to improve on his seventh place finish from last season’s championships.
UConn finished the regular season as the No. 14 team in the Northeast Region after winning the Rothenburg Run in its last race. The Huskies also won the UB Stampede and finished second in the Minuteman Invitational this season. Senior Mike O’Donnell, who finished sixth in last season’s championships, and junior Michael McGonnigle, paced the Huskies this year as McGonnigle won the Rothenburg Run and O’Donnell finished seventh in the New England Championships.
Temple is the final ranked team on the men’s side with the No. 15 spot in the Mid-Atlantic Region. The Owls finished second in both the Leopard Invitational and Duquesne Duals and third at the Big 5 Invitational. Graduate student Marc Steinsberger has been the leader for Temple this season, taking home individual titles at the Rider Invitational and Leopard Invitational. Temple will have an inexperienced team at the championship as the top four finishers from last year will not be in the race this year.
Other runners in the men’s race to keep an eye on are Emmanuel Rotich from Tulane, who has finished in the top-two of every race this season, and teammate Moses Aloiloi who finished 10
th in last season’s meet. East Carolina’s Jorge Montes finished in 14
th at last year’s championship. Houston has been led this season by sophomore GJ Reyna, who is appearing in his first championship appearance. Julian Sanchez-Pinto has led Memphis all year and USF’s John Weaver is the top returning runner for the Bulls from last year’s meet.
For the latest 2016 American Athletic Conference Cross Country Championship information visit Championship Central and follow @AmericanXCTrack on Twitter.