Cross Country Set for Texas A&M Invitational

DENTON, Texas – UNT cross country will run its first of three meets this season at the Watts Cross Country Course in College Station, Texas, when the team toes the line at the Texas A&M Invitational Friday morning.

Through the first two weeks of the season, the Mean Green have seen positive results, including six individual top-10 finishes despite sending nearly two entirely different groups of runners to the UCA Bear XC Invitational and the JK Gold Classic. With so many runners opening their seasons, head coach Erik Stevens has prioritized executing the race plan put in place with hopes it will benefit the team later on in the season.

"We still have a few people who are opening up their season this weekend, so we will keep that plan in place and it's also over a different distance than we've run this season," Stevens said. "It is about learning how to execute and then next weekend in Minnesota it's about learning how to race."

The men's team will run its first 8K of the season Friday to kick off the meet at 8 a.m. CT. Former Georgetown High School teammates Nolan House and Joseph Wienen are set to make the first appearances of their careers and will be joined by fellow freshmen David Kalwahali and Hunter Hendry. Iain Salter and Hardy Swann will round out the group of six representing the UNT men.

Following the men's 8K, the women will run a 5K, which is scheduled to start at approximately 8:45 a.m. CT. Four of the runners will be returning to the lineup for a second time after opening their seasons at the UCA Bear XC Invitational. True freshman Destiny Hernandez will look to post another impressive result after leading UNT with a 14th-place finish in her debut. She will be joined by Ella Bengtsson, Amy Pritchard, Brenna Zerby and Tiblets Abreha, who is the lone female running for the first time this year.

"We're going to continue to gauge where we are at this weekend." Stevens said. "I want to give the younger runners another opportunity to get out there and compete against a larger field with some bigger schools."

In addition to an increase in competition with teams such as the Aggies, Oklahoma, Baylor and Tulane in the field, the Mean Green will have a chance to experience a course they will run on two more times this season at the Arturo Barrios Invitational on Oct. 18 and the NCAA South Central Regional on Nov. 15.

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Players Mentioned

Tiblets Abreha

Ella Bengtsson

Hunter Hendry

Destiny Hernandez

Nolan House

David Kalwahali

Amy Pritchard

Iain Salter

Hardy Swann

Joseph Wienen

Brenna Zerby

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