UNT Cross Country Heads to NCAA South Central Regional

DENTON, Texas – The UNT men's and women's cross-country teams will head to Fayetteville, Arkansas, to compete in the NCAA South Central Regional on Friday.

"We want to be as high as we can in the region," UNT cross country coach Erik Stevens said. "We know we're capable of being a top-five team on the men's side and a top-12 to top-10 team on the women's side and we want to see all that work come to fruition."

The South Central Region consists of 29 men's programs and 30 women's programs that will be sending athletes to the meet. The top-two teams on both the men's and women's side, along with the top-five individual finishers not representing those two teams will qualify for the NCAA Championships.

For North Texas, the women's team will be represented by the same group that competed at the conference meet on Oct. 28. Those seven will be Aditi Silwal, Trinity Trotter, Tiblets Abreha, Addison Sykora, Amy Pritchard, Miranda Vreeland and Marisa Jacober.

"They've come together really well," Stevens said. "They're looking like they're ready to step up and have a solid race over 6,000 meters. We ran our first 6,000 meters four weeks ago at Texas A&M and they came off that really well. They had a little slip at conference, so I know they're all itching to get back and prove that was just a little slip up. They're ready to be a part of something big that UNT women's cross country hasn't seen in quite a while, so I know they'll step up to the challenge."

On the men's side, the group will be led by Victor Neiva who placed 12^th and the conference meet to earn all-conference accolades. Joining him on Friday will be Luke Canon, Jake Meyering, Alan Proenza, Mason Garner, Hardy Swann and Jake Johnson.

The Mean Green placed seventh on the men's side in the 8,000 meters at the American Athletic Conference Championship, but will have a chance to make some noise in their first 10,000 meters race of the season.

"It's that time of the year now," Stevens said. "We've had several cracks at 8,000 meters and this will be our first crack at 10,000 meters. The guys are ready, they just have to put it to work now. We've had time to experiment with some things as far as difference race strategies but now we just have to put it together and execute on the right day at the right time and that is on Friday. I know they are primed for it, they are looking good as far as their fine tuning and workouts go, so everything is on track we just have to go out and execute."

The women's 6K race will be first up on Friday morning beginning at 10:30 a.m. CT, followed by the men's 10K at 11:30 a.m. CT. Live results will be provided by Flash Results.

Be sure to keep an eye on MeanGreenSports.com, and follow @MeanGreenSports and @MeanGreenTFXC on social media for all of the latest information.

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Players Mentioned

Tiblets Abreha

Luke Canon

Mason Garner

Marisa Jacober

Jake Johnson

Jake Meyering

Victor Neiva

Amy Pritchard

Alan Proenza

Aditi Silwal

Hardy Swann

Addison Sykora

Trinity Trotter

Miranda Vreeland

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