IT'S RACE WEEK!
The Highlands University Cross Country Jam is here and the University and City are excited to have it.
The race has been held at the NMHU/Gene Torres Golf course for most of it's life-- "We moved it out to King's Stadium behind Luna a couple times, but the golf course is a faster course and easier for fans to get to." said coach
Bob DeVries
The men's course record was set way back in 1998 by HU's Waylon Wade. Wade, from Aztec, NM, is the only athlete to ever break 24 minutes on the XC Jam course. Wade would go on to help the Cowboys place tenth at the NCAA national championships that year. The women's course record is also held by an Aztec athlete-- Anna Swier (Williams) who ran 17:41 in 1999.
Expected teams:
Eastern New Mexico
Oklahoma Panhandle University
CSU-Pueblo
Dine' College
NMHU
"We keep it small;. this is a low-key opportunity for our athletes to race in front of the home crowd and the local high school runners who will compete over the same course on the same day."
The HU men will compete without All-American
Andrew Amor who will take a week off from racing.
"Andy has raced the national athlete of the week in the first two races of the season, so he's pushed it pretty hard. This is a chance for our other men to step up and race at the front. The Cowboys are coming off an impressive 8th- place showing at the Missouri Southern Stampede that saw them finish just one spot behind nationally ranked Pitt State.
Freshman
Celso Garcia (Alamogordo HS) had a breakout performance last week at the Southern Stampede. Racing for just the second time in his collegiate career, Garcia stormed his way to a top-25 placing among nearly 300 finishers in Missouri. Pojoaque HS grad
John Hall is "ready to race really fast, says DeVries. "He's been our #2 guy in almost every workout-- it's time for him to put together a complete race."
Three New Mexico runners are expected to lead the Cowgirl pack on Saturday.
Faith Lovato (Rio Rancho HS)
Jewels Leslie (Wingate HS) and
Anica Lucero (Santa Rosa HS) will look to build off a race that saw all seven varsity runners set new college bests for the 5K (3.1 mile) distance.
The college meet is held in conjunction with the Meadow City Invitational hosted by Robertson High School.
"There will be a couple hundred high school and middle school runners out there on Friday. Robertson has a great history in cross country—just like HU."
Schedule:
2PM College Women 5K
2:45PM College Men 7K
3:30PM JV Girls
4:00PM JV Boys
4:30 PM Varsity Girls
5PM Varsity Boys
5:30PM "C" Team Combined race
