HUNTSVILLE | The UAH men's and women's cross country teams host one of the premier Division II races with the UAH Chargers Invitational at John Hunt Park on Saturday morning. The men's 8k race begins at 8 a.m., followed by the women's 6k race at 8:50 a.m.
Live results are available for Saturday's races. Course maps and race information are available online as well. Parking for spectators is available throughout the John Hunt Park complex.
The field at the UAH Chargers Invitational features a total of 74 competing teams including several in the national rankings including No. 7 Chico State, No. 8 Lee, No. 22 Pittsburg State, and No. 29 Florida Southern from the men's side, and No. 12 Chico State, No. 13 Lee, No. 16 Pittsburg State, No. 23 Rogers State, and No. 27 Cedarville on the women's.
This race also serves as a preview for the 2024 NCAA Division II South Region Championships, which will be held at John Hunt Park on Nov. 9. South Region competitors on Saturday include Christian Brothers, Clark Atlanta, Florida Southern, Florida Tech, Lee, Mississippi College, Morehouse, Nova Southeastern, Tampa, Trevecca Nazarene, Tuskegee, Valdosta State, and West Alabama.
The Chargers most recently competed at the Chile Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on Sept. 28 with the men's team finishing fifth and the women's team eighteenth in a strong field that included several Division I programs.
Sam Wilhelm guided the Chargers to their fifth-place team standing with a fifth-place time of 23:44.4 at the Chili Pepper Festival. He was the second-highest placing Division II runner in the race, as his time last Saturday ranks second all-time for UAH in an 8k race. The Chargers also had five other runners place within the top 80.
In the women's 5k competition last weekend, the Chargers were led by Aylin Vega in 102nd overall at a time of 18:32.2 at the Chili Pepper Festival and she was closely followed by Lucy Barker 104th at 18:33.3. UAH had three more runners finish in the top 150 of the field.
John Hunt Park features a championship caliber cross-country course that is a 10-meter wide, manicured grass surface course with multiple spurred loops providing various distance options including 2-mile, 5K, 6K, 8K, and 10K. The course is located on the south side of John Hunt Park and accommodates high school, NCAA, and USA Track & Field needs for all their various training and competition events.
After Saturday's race, UAH looks ahead to the start of the postseason with the 2024 Gulf South Conference Cross Country Championships on Saturday, Oct. 26 in Clinton, Mississippi, on the campus of Mississippi College.
