RIO GRANDE VALLEY – The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley cross country teams take on their first meet of the season Friday at the UIW Twilight in San Antonio.
The women's squad will be competing in a 4K race starting at 8:50 p.m. followed by the men's 6K race which is scheduled to begin at 9:10 p.m. at the Classics Elite Soccer Complex. Teams attending are the host UIW Cardinals, North Texas, Our Lady of the Lake, Texas A&M-Kingsville, Texas Lutheran, Texas State, Trinity and UTSA. UTRGV distance coach
Travis Pope feels his team is in a good place heading into the meet and is particularly looking forward to learning more about the freshmen Vaqueros.
"We're confident with where we are right now. We're still working on some things but where we are for the first race of the season, I think we're in a good position to do well," Pope said. "The goal is to make sure we put ourselves in a good starting spot and compete with the people around us for the rest of the race. It's not a distance race, it's the beginning of the year for shaking the cobwebs off, so our biggest thing is making sure we get into good positions and compete well."
Running night races will change how the Vaqueros prepare a little, since they're used to running first thing in the morning after a light breakfast, but they're up for the challenge. They'll have to plan their day carefully and make sure they stay hydrated and eat healthy to be ready to run when the sun goes down.
Five freshmen will be making their debuts –
Abraham Morales and
Sebastian Salinas with the men's squad;
Faith Cruz, Selissa Gonzales and
Natalie Guillen with the women's team. Pope is eager to see how they do in their first collegiate race. The coach feels confident the men's team will push each other and have a good season-opening meet.
"I'm excited to see where Faith is. She's been having some good weeks so it's going to be interesting to see what she does in this first race, and to see what Abraham and Sebastian do with them finally coming into some longer distance stuff," Pope said. "Really, all the guys are in good shape. Our men's team is such a tight group and it's going to be interesting to see what order they come in."
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