Cross Country Heads to UTA Invitational

Friday, September 7

Grand Prairie, Texas

8:00 a.m. CT

Baylor

Gerald Richey UTA Invitational

Cross Country Heads to UTA Invitational

9/6/2018 4:10:00 PM | Cross Country

Both the men’s and women’s races will be 5,000 meters.

WACO, Texas – Baylor cross country will hit the road for the Gerald Richey UTA Invitational Friday morning at Lynn Creek Park in Arlington.

Both the men's and women's races will be 5,000 meters, with the women kicking things off at 8 a.m. CT. The men's race will begin shortly after the completion of the women's race.

"For some of them it will be a different exercise than others," associate head coach Jon Capron said. "The ones that didn't get to race last week, this is their first race. We're aiming for a hard workout that maybe we haven't gotten yet with race-type intensity."

The Baylor men, coming off a victory at the Bear Twilight to start the season, will take 10 runners to Arlington for the UTA meet. Reigning Big 12 Runner of the Week Jeremy Meadows, Connor Laktasic, Matt Henderson, and TJ Sugg look to build upon season-opening top-10 finishes, and freshman Cal Johnston looks for his second time scoring in as many races for the Bears. Seth Brown, Henry Huff, Jeff Kirwin, Sean McCullough and J.B. Sandlund will each be competing for Baylor, as well.

"On the guys' side, since it's only a 5K (even shorter than the 6K we ran last week), this is our chance to see how far down we can push that leadoff mile before it stings us a little bit," Capron said. "You do that wrong in an 8K and it's a really long four miles. In a 5K, you only have to suffer through two miles if you go out fast."

The Baylor women placed second as a team at the Bear Twilight with seven top-25 individual finishes. Alison Andrews-Paul, Brooke Gilmore, Celia Holmes, Sarah Antrich, Lindsay Walton, Mazie Larsen, Katy Parsons, Hana Marsheck, Haley Everroad, Jamie Holodak and Sydney Gandy will all be making their second appearance for the Bears this season. Gabby Satterlee, an all-region performer for Baylor in 2017, returns to the lineup to make her season debut.

"We worked on closing a little bit last week with the ladies," Capron said. "This week I want them packed up a little bit more and I want us to get out, which we didn't do and that's why SMU got so far ahead of us. I think we can fix that over time, and this is our first step for that."

This is one of only two races for Baylor in September, which won't compete again until the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational Sept. 28 in South Bend. Capron said the focus these next three weeks will be on the speed side of things.

"It's still more of a product of what they did over the summer," Capron said of individual expectations heading into the second meet of the season. "Some of them are further along than others. We will kind of more coalesce as a team as we get further and further in. I need my middle to be closing on the front a little bit, and I need some people to continue to move forward."

Race results for the UTA Invitational can be found at http://runfarusa.com/.

For updates on Baylor's cross country team, follow @BaylorTrack on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.