SAN ANTONIO — UTSA will begin the postseason on Saturday morning when it competes at the Conference USA Championships in Denton. The 5,000-meter race is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m.
North Texas will host the first championship meet of the newly-realigned league when it welcomes 15 teams to Eagle Point Cross Country Course. A new team champion will be crowned this year, as SMU, which has won the last two C-USA titles, has moved on to the American Athletic Conference.
The Roadrunners moved up five spots to fifth in last week's U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Association's South Central Regional rankings. UTSA currently sits behind Arkansas (the nation's second-ranked squad), Texas A&M, Texas and SMU in the standings and that is the highest ranking among C-USA teams.
UTSA has won five league crowns in program history. The Roadrunners captured three consecutive Southland Conference Championships from 1991-93 and then won back-to-back titles in 1995-96. UTSA came up just short in its first and only appearance at the Western Athletic Conference Championships a year ago, as Idaho edged the Roadrunners by only three points in what was the closest team finish in league history.
Nina Herrera helped lead UTSA to a 21st-place finish at the Indiana State Pre-National Invitational two weeks ago. The senior from El Paso covered the 6,000-meter LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country course in 21:14.47 en route to a 70th-place showing.
The Roadrunners have featured a balanced lineup this fall. Herrera has been the team's top finisher three times, while Alyssa Diaz, Samantha Fish and Emily Perez have topped the squad at three other meets.