The UTRGV Men’s Cross Country team run in a pack on their last practice lap at the Soccer and Track & Field Complex on the Edinburg campus. Shown are senior Alex Munoz (from left), freshman Manuel Flores, freshman Diego DeLeon, freshman Kevin Cardenas, junior Alex Canales, sophomore Abraham Morales and junior Ricardo Garcia. Ryan Lugo/THE RIDER
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Men’s and Women’s Cross-Country teams are set to start their season Friday at the University of the Incarnate Word Twilight Competition in San Antonio.
Last season, the men’s team placed third among nine teams in the competition, while the women’s team garnered fourth place out of seven teams.
Following the UIW Twilight is the UIW Invitational on Sept. 16 and the Arturo Barrios Invitational on Oct. 13 hosted by Texas A&M University in College Station.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association South Central Regional and Cross-Country Championship take place Nov. 10 and 18, respectively, while the Western Athletic Conference Championships begin March 27.
Head coach Shareese Hicks said the teams have had an “outstanding” summer.
“Their mileage has been impeccable,” Hicks said. “The advantage that they have whenever they train solo in the summer is they kind of have a lot of different options when it comes to the terrain. A lot of them were outside of Edinburg, which, as you know, is very flat.”
She said the team is also competitive with each other and they push each other further.
Asked about the upcoming UIW Twilight competition, Hicks replied that it was a familiar setting for the team.
“The upperclassmen that know this is their last year, they have something to prove,” she said. “Their goal is a little bit different than everyone else. … Our freshmen, even some of our sophomores, [their goal] is more about trying to see where they are at this year, now that they’re older and wiser.”
Hicks said they look for like-minded student athletes.
She said one of the main things is how they are doing academically as well as discipline, since it is an important trait in an athlete or anyone looking to achieve a goal.
Hicks said some people think track and field is individualized.
“It’s not like that with UTRGV Track and Field and Cross-Country,” she said. “We are one team. … Somebody that comes in and is a very selfless person will fit right in.”
The coach said the team as a whole had goals to increase their team GPA and their involvement with the community.
Another goal for the team is to keep achieving better ranking in the WAC Championships.
“Just continue to climb up the ranks in the Western Athletic Championships,” Hicks said. “We went from last to seventh and, hopefully, to be in the top five or even the top three.”
She said even though it is still early, the season looks promising and the team finished 15 seconds faster than what their pace was supposed to be.
Junior distance runner Estrella Medellin said the team has been keeping fit during the summer.
“I live in Brownsville, so the trails that I use are over there in Brownsville,” Medellin said. “So there’s, like, the Southmost trail … there’s also one by, like, the [Brownsville] Events Center. There’s different trails there that I would use.”
She said the team is excited about getting new locker rooms, which are being built as part of a $30 million investment in UTRGV athletics facilities, and the first race coming up.
“The locker rooms most definitely,” Medellin said. “… I can’t wait until they’re open and finally have those rooms. As for competition, we’re ready to see what happens in this race, see how we’ve been training.”
The new building will house office spaces, sports medicine facilities as well as locker rooms for soccer, track and cross-country.
Medellin also looks forward to a team bonding moment.
“Just having a dinner night,” she said. “Just going to talk, get to know each other more. Right now, we’re just coming to practice, talking a little bit and then running.”
Sophomore distance runner Abraham Morales said he started running more miles during the summer and is ready to see how that translates into competition.
“Last summer, I was up to, like, 30 miles a week,” Morales said. “This year, I bumped it up to, like, 60. So, this season, I’m pretty excited to see where I can go. Last year, with 30 miles, I was in the top three. I’m excited [about] what I can do with 60 miles a week.”
He said he can tell the team chemistry is good from how the team is hitting the same pace and working together well.
Morales said the team is excited, not just about the locker rooms, but the new training rooms, as well as playing against some of the bigger schools.“Last season, we finished in the top 12,” he said. “I really believe, like, if we keep this up, keep training consistently, hitting our trainings, hitting our paces and staying in the weight room, then we should finish in the top 10.”
