The Pre-National meet, which serves as a pre-cursor for the NCAA Championships will be held at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park, the same course that will host the championship in November. Houston will run in the men’s red race (8K) at 10 a.m. and each of the men’s (8K) and women’s (6K) black races at 11:30 a.m. and 12:15 p.m., respectively.
The Houston men have picked up individual wins in each of their two competitions this season. Senior Brian Barraza claimed the title in the men’s 8,000-meter race at the Texas A&M Invitational, while junior G.J. Reyna opened the campaign with a victory at the Rice Invitational.
Pre-Nationals will test cross country’s skill on key track
The Cougars are only one of 80 teams that will be running on the course at Louisville at the Pre-Nationals meet, which bears that name because it takes place at the same cross-country course that will host the NCAA championships.
For all the teams running, Pre-Nationals serves as a chance to see how they fare on the course.
For the top teams that know they will return, the meet shows them where they need to improve. For teams like the Cougars, this meet will show where they need to get to compete with those top teams.
The Cougars will travel to Philadelphia for the American Athletic Conference Championship on Oct. 28, when Magness will see if his runners have prepared themselves well enough to compete for a title against the likes of Tulsa and SMU. It now appears that both the men and women are set up to have strong finishes from the top runners on both squads.
