OKLAHOMA CITY – The MACU men's and women's cross country teams will return to the course on Saturday morning as the Evangels will be running in the Dallas Baptist Old Glory Gallop taking place at Lynn Creek Park in Grand Prairie, Texas.
The men's team will compete in the 8000-meter event at 8:15 a.m. while the women's team takes to the course for the 5000-meter race at 9:15 a.m.
On the men's side, the Evangels will be setting their sights on setting an NCCAA National Championship qualifying mark, which is a team average of 29:23.2. As a team, the Evangels combined to run an average time of 30:03 on Sept. 23 at the Greiner Family Cross Country Course in Stillwater, Oklahoma for the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree, which is considered one of the most challenging cross country courses in the nation.
Pacing MACU is freshman Mason Baker, who at the Cowboy Jamboree ran a 28:04.80, which not only set the fifth-fastest 8k course time in program history, but also set the fastest mark an Evangels runner had ever set on the illustrious Greiner course.
Baker wasn't the only one to crack into the program's all-time top 10 8000-meter record book as Jackson White ran a 29:45.40 at the Cowboy Jamboree, setting the 10th fastest time in the book as well as the third-fastest MACU time ever at OSU.
On the women's side, sophomore Gracie Sanders and freshman Ivy Moffat will be competing in their first 5k event of the season after running in a 6000-meter race at the OSU Cowboy Jamboree.
In that event, Sanders ran a 24:21.3 and finished in the top third of the 223 competitor field, coming in 72nd place in a meet consisting of primarily an NCAA Division I and II field.
Sanders' mark set an NCCAA National Championship qualifying mark and through a 5k time conversion, currently ranks as the 28th-fastest time at 20:04.
The meet will serve as a strong warm-up to the SAC Championships as it will be the penultimate race for each program before the conference title meet on Nov. 4 in Bethany, Oklahoma.
