SAN ANTONIO — UTSA returns to the trails on Friday morning when it travels to College Station for the NCAA South Central Regional.
The women's 6,000-meter race is scheduled for a 10 a.m. start at the Dale Watts Country Course and schools from the states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas will make up the field of 185 athletes.
The Roadrunners, who rank 12th in the region and third among Conference USA programs behind only Rice (third) and North Texas (ninth), are coming off an eighth-place finish at the C-USA Championships.
UTSA will face runners from 23 teams — Arkansas, Arkansas-Little Rock, Arkansas State, Baylor, Houston, Houston Baptist, Lamar, LSU, McNeese State, New Orleans, North Texas, Rice, Sam Houston State, Southeastern Louisiana, SMU, Stephen F. Austin, TCU, Texas, Texas-Rio Grande Valley, Texas A&M, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Tulane and UT Arlington — in the race that precedes the NCAA Championships.
The top two teams, along with the top four individuals not on an advancing squad, will qualify for the national meet, which is scheduled for next Saturday, Nov. 21, in Louisville, Ky.
Yulisa Abundis raced to a 26th-place performance to pace the Bords at the C-USA meet two weeks ago. The freshman from Aptos, Calif., covered the 5,000-meter Spero Kereiakes Park trail in 18:41.1 and she finished as the UTSA's top performer for the first time this fall.