Less than two days away from the conference run, the John Brown University cross country continues to tread forward as the end of the season soon approaches.
The SAC conference will be hosted by Oklahoma Baptist University on Saturday and will take place in Shawnee, Okla. The teams will go up against six other schools which are within the conference, including Lubbock Christian, Wayland Baptist and St. Gregory’s.
Senior Melissa Roth said the team’s last major workout was on Monday. Practices after Monday will focus more on building speed rather than distance.
As far as the course, head coach Matt Pearson characterizes it as flat and fast-paced. He said both teams had a good performance there last year and expects the same thing this time around.
Roth also shares that this is her sixth time running the course and that she knows what to expect when the competition begins.
“Some people might not like it but I think it’s a pretty decent course,” she said.
As far as competition, both teams agree that the younger runners are the ones to look out for.
The last time the team was at this course was at the Oklahoma Baptist Invitational earlier this month in which the men’s team finished in the eighth spot while the women locked in seventh place.
Bringing the men’s team to a total of 211, Golden Eagle freshman Marcos Gutierrez led in the 8k run with a time of 26:20.00 with teammate, junior Teske Gebreslasse following close behind at 27:08.
The women scored a team total of 179 while Oklahoma Baptist took the first spot with a team total of 19.