RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – On Wednesday, August 21, the Great American Conference released the 2024 Women's Cross Country Preseason Coaches Poll that has the reigning GAC champions, the East Central Tigers, located at first with nine of the twelve first-place votes. Going into his inaugural season as the Mulerider Cross Country/Track & Field head coach, James Bowlin's Muleriders will begin the campaign as the seventh overall squad according to the league's coaches.
Southern Arkansas is voted into seventh-place amongst conference competition with 58 points. The Muleriders find themselves seven points ahead the Crimson Storm of Southern Nazarene and behind Southeastern Oklahoma State by 13 points.
Ten Muleriders make up Coach Bowlin's roster as four make their return in
Cantley Gosdin,
Ava Zindler,
Alyzah McGlasson, and the 13
th Lois Davis Invitational champion
Logan Warren. The first-year head coach brings in six newcomers including one freshman runner.
The Mulerider Men competed in five meets last fall as they finished 8
th of 13 at the Mississippi College Season Opener (Clinton, Miss. | Sep. 1), 2
nd of 6 groups in the 13
th Lois Davis Invitational (Magnolia, Ark. | Sep. 8), 7
th of 23 teams in the Chile Pepper Festival (Fayetteville, Ark. | Sep. 29), and 18
th of 33 at the Old Glory Gallop (Grand Prairie, Texas | Oct. 7).
In the 2023 GAC Cross Country Championships, Southern Arkansas finished where they now begin 2024, in seventh. The Muleriders accounted for a total team-time of 1:43:07 that gave them a score of 225. Warren was the first to cross the finish line for the Muleriders as the now senior distance-runner finished in 6:19.7 and placed 44
th among the 141 competitors.
