Eighteen Purple Aces head to Iowa for the MVC Cross Country Championships race on Friday, November 1st. The MVC Championships is being hosted by the Northern Iowa Panthers at Pheasant Ridge Golf Course with the women’s 6K starting at 11 a.m. while the men’s 8K starts at 12 p.m. Bradley and Belmont have been predicted to take home the Missouri Valley Conference cross country championship titles in 2024 in a pre-championship vote by the head coaches. UE was picked to finish 10th on the men’s side and 11th on the women’s side.
Evansville heads into Friday’s championships after a strong showing at the Angel Mounds Invitational on Friday, October 18th. Sophomore runner Rafael Rodriguez (Sergovia, Spain) earned the fourth-best time in program history for a men’s 8K race at 24:43 for a sixth-place overall finish. Rodriguez’s time helped propel the Purple Aces men’s team to sixth place out of 16 teams improving four sports from 2023. On the women’s team sophomore Avery Stephens (Newburg, Ind. / Castle HS) led the team with a personal best of 23:25.4 in the women’s 6K for an 11th-place finish out of 16 teams.
On the women’s side the Aces will have running freshman Megan Allgeier (Batesville, Ind. / Batesville HS), sophomore Kyndall Anthis (Pakota, Ind. / Princeton Community HS), freshman Lauren Bradley (Russiaville, Ind. / Western HS), senior Hannah Bryan (Evansville, Ind. / Reitz HS), freshman Skyler Dickenson (Brownsburg, Ind. / Brownsburg HS), sophomore Chase Hayes (Noblesville, Ind. / Western HS), freshman Aleks Parmer (Fort Branch, Ind. / Gibson Southern HS), junior Olivia Pennington (Fort Branch, Ind. / Gibson Southern HS), and sophomore Avery Stephens (Newburg, Ind. / Castle HS). On the men’s side UE will have running sophomore Woody Burrell (Ceaderburg, Wis. / Ceaderburg HS), sophomore Cedrik Flipo (Beloeil, Quebec), sophomore Samuel Lea (Worchester, England), sophomore Tommaso Losma (Bergamo, Italy), freshman Kadin McAlister (Lilburn, Ga. / Parkview HS), sophomore Jakub Nowicki (Poznan, Poland), freshman Andrew Potter (Warsaw, Ind. / Warsaw Community HS), senior Adam Oulgout (St. Paul, Minn. / Central HS), and Rodriguez.
Evansville fans can follow along with the MVC Championships through Wayzata Timing.