ORLANDO – The UCF cross country team travels to Tulsa, Oklahoma for its last American Athletic Conference Championship Friday morning at Mohawk Park.
The Knights will look to win their first-ever conference championship in cross country, having swept in Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field earlier this year. Joining the AAC in 2013, UCF placed fourth in its first two seasons, before fifth-place finishes in both 2016 and 2020.
Coach Bryan Jackson and his squad are having their best season to date since Jackson arrived in 2018. After a second-place finish at their home UCF Invite, the Knights traveled to North Alabama where freshman Isabella Richardson smashed the freshman record and propelled UCF to a ninth-place finish.
Richardson wasn't the only freshman to take home first overall, as both Penelope Sosa and the Knights took the number one spot at the Florida Atlantic Invitational. The Black and Gold then placed 13th of 38 teams in the Arturo Barrios Invitation at Texas A&M.
Richardson and Sosa, who are competing in their first Championship, will be joined by an experienced field. Mackenzie Czurak, Lillian Holtery and Mariana Rodriquez are among a handful of Knights who've competed in the Conference tournament. Holtery landed in the top 50 with a time of 23:22.6 in her debut last year.
The current War on I-4 scoreboard sits at 3-0 UCF as the Knights will race for yet another six points in Tulsa.
The women's 6K race is slated for 10:15 a.m. ET and can be streamed on ESPN+.
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