Aug. 31, 2006

The University of Texas-Pan American men's and women's cross country teams will open the 2006 season on Friday (Sept. 1) when the Broncs and Lady Broncs travel to Waco, TX, to participate in the Baylor Relays hosted by Baylor University.

Assistant coach Brian Cunningham looks at this first meet as a way to get his athletes back into competition form. The men's team is young, but will use this race to gear-up for the upcoming campaign while the veteran women's team will have their experience put to the test early in the season.

"With both teams we just want them to get out into a competitive environment and go through the motions of racing again. I expect we'll have some pretty descent performances, but they're going to be tired as they will be through most of the early season," said Cunningham.

This unique cross country relay meet will feature two-person teams who each will run two legs. Men's teams will run 3,000 meters each leg, and women's teams will run 2,000 meters each leg; a shorter distance than the 10,000 meters and 8,000 meters each team runs, respectively.

"It's a little different. In early season, schools will do this because it's an opportunity to get out, run, spin your wheels, run a shorter distance than you will the rest of the season," said Cunningham.

The relay format of the event promotes a relaxed setting, and will give the coaches an idea as to where their teams stand early in the season before heading to College Station, TX, to compete in the Texas A&M Invitational hosted by Texas A&M.

"We want to make it a good competitive opportunity in order to see where we need to go from here," said Cunningham.

The Baylor Relays will feature competitive teams from the Big 12, Conference USA and Mountain West conferences. TCU, Baylor and SMU are the teams to watch out for, and will give the UTPA runners an idea of the competition they will see the next time they head to Waco for the NCAA South Central Regional Championships in November.

"We know we've got a lot of work left in us so it's nice to be able to kind of show what we need to do to be competitive in our region," added Cunningham.

The Baylor Relays will be held at the intramural fields on the campus of Baylor University during the evening hours on Friday (Sept. 1).

UTPA Sports Information