Williamsburg, KY - The men's and women's cross country teams have released their 2022 schedule and are just three weeks away from their first race. This year's schedule features six regular season meets with the MSC and NAIA Championships to follow.
 
The Patriots will get the year started the same way as last season, at the Berea/Centre Cross Country Jamboree on September 2. The women came out of Berea with a dominant first place finish to start their 2021 campaign, placing seven in the top-15, and look to do the same this year. The men look to improve upon their seventh place finish a season ago.
 
Two weeks later on September 17, Cumberlands is set to travel south to Tallahassee, FL for the NAIA XC Pre-Nationals meet. This will be the Pats first look at the course where the 2022 NAIA National Championships will be held. Also on that Saturday, all the runners who did not make the trip to Florida will go back to Berea College to race in the Mike and Mary Kay Johnson Classic.
 
"I'm looking forward to facing some competition we don't normally get to at this point in the season, along with getting a feel for the course that we will be running for the National Championships," said Assistant Coach Jamen Helton.
 
UC will return to action on Saturday, October 1, where they will compete at the Live in Louisville Cross Country Classic in Louisville, KY. This features a massive field of competitors across all divisions. The women put together a top-20 team finish out of 55 teams a season ago at this race.
 
Just six days after this, the teams will travel down to North Carolina for the Royals Cross Country Challenge. The Patriots ran their fastest times of the 2021 season at this course, and look to do even better this year. The regular season will end in Grand Rapids, MI at the Great Lakes Challenge. This meet features a number of top teams in the NAIA and will be a great test for UC prior to postseason competition.
 
The Mid-South Conference Championships will be held on November 4, in Bowling Green, KY. UC's women look to take home their third straight MSC title, and earn another NAIA Nationals qualification. The men put together a solid sixth place performance in 2021, and are working to sit atop of the conference once again at the end of the year. The NAIA National Championships will be two weeks later on Friday, November, 18 in Tallahassee, FL where UC will compete against the NAIA's top teams for a shot at winning a National Championship.
 
First-year Head Coach Bradley Sowder is looking forward to his first season with the Pats, and says that his team will be ready to compete for a championship by the end of the year. "We put together a really solid schedule that will not only test our athletic capacity, but emotional and mental capacity as well, to get us where we need to be by the end of the season."

For the latest and most up-to-date information on University of the Cumberlands Athletics. Please visit www.cumberlandspatriots.com. Follow us on Twitter- @UC_Patriots and @UCPatsGameday, Instagram- @UCPatriots, Youtube- Cumberlands Patriots, and Facebook by searching University of the Cumberlands Athletics.