Sooner XC to Compete at North Texas

NORMAN - The Sooners are set to compete in their second race of the 2015 cross country season Saturday. Race day will find them in Denton, Texas, at the Ken Garland Invitational. The competition will be the first time in 12 years that the Sooners have run in Denton. The OU men won the 2003 North Texas Invitational while the women finished fourth.

The women's 5,000-meter run opens the day for the collegiate competition at 8:10 a.m. (CDT) The men will compete on a four-mile course with the race slated to begin at 8:40 a.m. (CDT). Other Division I teams competing include host North Texas, Texas Christian, Baylor, Dallas Baptist, the Louisiana Tech men's team and the Southern Methodist women's team. The non-division I entries include Tarleton State, Mississippi College, Wiley College, the Southeastern Oklahoma women and the Paul Quinn men and that division will be scored separately. The invitational will also have middle and high school races as well as a youth mile run and community 5K to end the day.

The Sooners will have have a total of 18 entries in the two races, six men and 12 women.

"I don't know much about the course because we haven't been to it in my two seasons here and It's been such a long time since OU ran in Denton," said Jason Dunn, associate head coach for cross country. "We'll be running guys who were eight years old at that time of OU's last race in Denton (2003).

"We're looking forward to our second opportunity to race," he continued. "There will be a few people who did not race at Oklahoma State so it's a chance to give them some experience."

The Sooners will again run the same number of people as the first but with a few changes in the lineups since then. For the men, redshirt seniors Will Hogston and Zac Randall will compete for the first time in 2015. Redshirt senior Hunter Heaton, senior Allen Eke and redshirt freshmen Brendan Taylor and Matthew Brafford will round out the men entries.

Underclassmen continue to make up the majority of OU's women entries as freshmen Alexandria Arndorfer, Grace Barber, Christa Boettiger, Isabella Rose and sophomores Sophia Fernald, Lauren Gibbs, Madison Heidenburg, as well as redshirt sophomore Lane Maguire are scheduled to run for OU. Arndorfer, who began her collegiate career at the season-opening Cowboy Preview with a 10th-place finish, will look to build upon that performance on Saturday. She led the Sooner women at the Cowboy Preview with her performance.

Like the men, several runners will be making their season debut. Redshirt freshman Hayley Redwine, sophomores Sarah Scott and Abbey Mace will be in their first race of the season while junior Bryce Perry will be the lone upperclassmen competing for the OU women.

"Training has been going well with our whole group and we again want to see how people respond to competition," Dunn said. "It should be a good opportunity to see where we're at with some of the people who haven't raced yet. For those who did, it will be a chance to build on their first experience and make some progress.

"This period is so much more about training than it is about racing for the overall picture of our group," he added. "We're not going to do anything special in terms of preparation. We'll be ready to go on Saturday."

Results of the meet will be posted on MeanGreenSports.com with a full Sooner recap available on SoonerSports.com.

Players Mentioned

Alexandria Arndorfer

Grace Barber

Christa Boettiger

Matt Brafford

Allen Eke

Sophia Fernald

Lauren Gibbs

Hunter Heaton

Madison Heidenburg

Will Hogston

Abbey Mace

Abbey Mace

Lane Maguire

Bryce Perry

Bryce Perry

Zac Randall

Hayley Redwine

Isabella Rose

Sarah Scott

Brendan Taylor

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