BRONCS, LADY BRONCS SET FOR REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Contact: Dave Geringer, UTPA Sports Information Director, (956) 381-2240

EDINBURG, TX-The moment that The University of Texas-Pan American's cross country teams have been preparing for is at hand.

The Broncs and Lady Broncs will participate in the most important meet of their seasons Saturday morning when they visit Baylor for the NCAA South Central Championships. The meet will take place at the Cottonwood Creek Golf Course, with the men running 10,000 meters at 10:00 a.m. and the women running 6,000 meters at 11:15 a.m. The top two teams, as well as the top four runners who are not members of the top two teams, will qualify for the NCAA Championships at Northern Iowa on November 24th.

"This is what we focus our whole season on," said UTPA Head Coach Ricky Vaughn. "This will give us a chance to gauge ourselves against the other teams in our region, and see where we've improved over last year. This is how you get to the NCAA Championships, and it's what we've been working for from the first day of practice."

The Broncs are ranked 15th in the latest NCAA South Central regional rankings, and junior Westly Keating (Pharr, TX/PSJA HS/Texas) is considered one of the top runners in the region after he finished first in a 33-team field at Arkansas' Chile Pepper Invitational October 18th.

"Westly has a shot at winning it," said UTPA Head Coach Ricky Vaughn. "He seems healthy and focused, and that's one of his goals. He established himself as one of the favorites with his race at the Chile Pepper, and after seeing what he is capable of, hopefully, he'll do well. Hopefully, our men can finish in the top ten. If all seven runners line up and run hard, and Westly has a good race, hopefully, that will put us up there."

The women will hope to better last year's 18th place finish. "I'd like to see us improve on our finish from last season, since we're so young," said Vaughn. "This is kind of a starting point for us, with five newcomers who are going out and establishing their identity. We're going to try to improve, and start to build a tradition of having a very good women's cross country program."

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