Tomorrow, The American Conference Cross Country Championships will take place at Lake Oaks Park in New Orleans.

The women's 6K race will begin at 9:15 a.m. CDT, with the men's 8K at approximately 10:00 a.m.

LIVE RESULTS

The race will be shown live on ESPN+

For the women, this conference may be one of the worst among the so-called "mid-majors". Tulane should win handily, with Tulsa likely to be runners-up. I have no idea who will be in line for 3rd. Rice finished 2nd last year, but if the Owls use the same lineup as earlier this season (without Mayer or Kopec), I don't know if they could get higher than 5th. With those two and with Gobran racing so well, they could finish in 2nd again.

Charlotte was 3rd last year, but they lost their top 2 (one was a senior, the other transferred to Penn State), and did not add anyone of note. Wichita State, which finished 4th, lost 2 of their top 3 from 2025.

This is a good conference for the men, and the top 3 teams from 2025 (Tulsa, Tulane and Wichita State) are strong again this year.

Wichita State lost 3 of its top 6 from last year, but return Kipruto, the individual champion, and Kipyego, who finished 6th. They also added two more Kenyans (to give them 4 in total).

Tulsa returns 6 of the top 7 from last year's championship team, including 4 runners who finished among the top 10 individuals.

Tulane returns last year's runner-up (Cheruiyot) and last year's 4th place finisher (Kiptanui). They do not return 3 of their top 6 from 2025 but added a Kenyan transfer (Kibet) from the University of Alabama.

Rice's top finisher should be Gus Gannon, who was 24th overall last season. The Owls were 5th as a team.

I think it will be close for the team title, but I will go with Wichita State, Tulsa, Tulane, North Texas and Rice.

Let’s Go Rice!

Oliwia Kopeć is on the start list for the Owls. If she is relatively fit, Rice could have a shot at 3rd in this down year for women in the conference.

Rice finishes 8th to continue a hugely disappointing season (with regionals to go). Alex Gobran was 13th as her fine season continues.

(10-31-2026 09:52 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Rice finishes 8th to continue a hugely disappointing season (with regionals to go). Alex Gobran was 13th as her fine season continues.

How many individuals qualify out of Regionals to go to nats (outside of the qualifying teams)?

Rice Men only finished 7th.

Gus Gannon was the top individual at 29th

In the men's race, 7 of the top 9 were Kenyans. 4 of them represented Tulane, an alleged academic school, and that's why the Green Wave easily won the championship.

(10-31-2026 10:26 AM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(10-31-2026 09:52 AM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  Rice finishes 8th to continue a hugely disappointing season (with regionals to go). Alex Gobran was 13th as her fine season continues.

How many individuals qualify out of Regionals to go to nats (outside of the qualifying teams)?

Top 4 in each of the 9 regions, plus 2 at-large for a total of 38.

Rice Cross Country needs more Kenyans!

At one point in my life, I was more technically adept and could do a simple thing like create a meme and embed it into a thread.

(10-31-2026 12:32 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  In the men's race, 7 of the top 9 were Kenyans. 4 of them represented Tulane, an alleged academic school, and that's why the Green Wave easily won the championship.

Just wondering what you’re implying about the academic qualifications of international students?

(10-31-2026 03:36 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(10-31-2026 12:32 PM)WRCisforgotten79 Wrote:  In the men's race, 7 of the top 9 were Kenyans. 4 of them represented Tulane, an alleged academic school, and that's why the Green Wave easily won the championship.

Just wondering what you’re implying about the academic qualifications of international students?

The average TOEFL score for Kenyans (81) is far below the listed minimum (95) for admission to Tulane. But I'm sure that athletes score much higher than the average, so I must be wrong in my implication.

(10-31-2026 12:52 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  Rice Cross Country needs more Kenyans!

At one point in my life, I was more technically adept and could do a simple thing like create a meme and embed it into a thread.

Posting inline images here is a colossal PITA.
They have to have been published somewhere else on the web, and then the link to that somewhere else is pasted into the box that clicking on the icon with the red dot over some mountains in the line of configuration items over the text box.
(I'm working in a browser on a laptop)
I have a WordPress account where I can post a photo, save it with a caption, then click on the "display a link" icon, so it opens a new tab with the photo, then I click on the URL for that.
That URL is what gets pasted in here in the forum.
Like I said, a PITA.
Not storing the image files on the CSNBBS server saves a lot of disk space.