FAIRBORN, Ohio - The IUPUI men's and women's cross country teams will compete at the 2023 #HLXC Championships, hosted by Wright State, on Saturday (Oct. 28) at Fairborn Community Park. The men's 8K race will begin at 11:00 a.m., followed by the women's 6K race at 12:00 p.m.. 

Head coach Justin Roeder's team earned a runner-up finish a season ago while head coach Antonio McDaniel's women's squad placed fourth in 2022. 

This season, the men's team has been strong, ranking among the Great Lakes Region's top 15 all season long. In four team entries, the Jaguars have captured two team titles and earned a pair of runner-up finishes, having defeated 97 percent of its foes for the year. The only losses came to Ohio State at the Mike Baumer XC Classic at Fairborn Community Park on Sept. 1 and a runner-up finish in the Gold Division of the Joe Piane Invite at Notre Dame. 

Nate Kaiser and Andrew Whitinger have primarily led the way with Kaiser having led the team to the finish line in the opening two races of the year. Nick Perkins was the team's top finisher at Notre Dame and Whitinger paced the Jaguars in the win at Bradley. What has set the Jaguars apart from their peers this season is their superior depth as Will Clark, Grant Moon, Eric Petersen and Mitchell Rans have all factored into the team's top five finishers. Behind them, Deion Guise has ranked among the Horizon League's top freshmen and most recently, Nolan King also collected a Horizon League Freshman of the Week award. Jack Acton earned a win in the White Race of the Bradley 'Pink' Classic two weeks ago and Justin Amburgy was named Horizon League Runner of the Week after his performance at the Butler Stan Lyons Invitational. 

On the women's side, the team's success has been directly tied to the team's health as the top three of Ellie Cates, Madison Fry and Julie Smith will be relied upon heavily to shoulder the load, as they have all season long. Cates led the team to the finish line in her first three entries of the season before missing the Bradley 'Pink' Classic due to injury. Smith was the team's top finisher at Bradley and has run among the team's top two finishers all season long while Fry has been among the team's top three in every meet. Freshman Grace Bragg has emerged as a solid member of the lineup while depth comes in the form of Kara Krol and Hannah Sale. An injury to talented junior Laci Provenzano has hindered team scoring since the season's second meet, but has also allowed others to compete for top-five positioning. 

Both Cates and Smith collected top-10 finishes at the season opening event at Wright State on the same course as the league championships. 

A full recap and results from Saturday's races will be posted to IUPUIJags.com immediately afterwards.