The RoundHouse | 10/31/2019 12:59:00 PM

 
In some sports, there is the travel to get to a place of competition with consistent, familiar boundaries and conditions. In cross country, almost everything is unfamiliar for Wichita State when it travels to the American Athletic Conference Championship.
 
The Shockers travel to Memphis' Shelby Farms Park for Friday's races. Wichita State's runners will see the course for the first time during Thursday's practice. Membership in the AAC means variety when it comes to running outdoors. In 2017, the Shockers ran in Philadelphia on the kind of course that names its hills and the women won last season's title in New Orleans. 
 
"We've got a map," Shockers coach Kirk Hunter said. "That's part of being in this conference. Whether it's the hills at Temple or the rain in New Orleans. Everybody has to race it." 
 
More important, this race is different because of expectations for the defending champions. The men's 8-kilometer race begins at 10 a.m. and the women's 6-kilometer at 10:50. 
 
The Shocker women won last season's title by two points ahead of Tulsa and four on Temple. Winny Koskei won the race with teammate Rebekah Topham third and Yazmine Wright No 18. All three are back this season.
 
"Last year, nobody even thought of us in any way, any fashion," Hunter said. "You know everybody is looking for us and they're gunning for us. There's no sneaking this year. They know we're coming."
 
 Koskei, a junior, is coming off a seventh-place finish in Pre-Nationals in Terre Haute, Ind., that Hunter described as her best race with a strong strategic plan and execution. She ran the 6-kilometer course with a time of 20 minutes, 23.8 seconds.
 
"I have to work for it," Koskei said. "For my fitness level . . . I'm better than where I was last year."
 
Eight of the top 15 finishers from 2018 are expected to run on Friday. The Tulsa women rank fourth in the Midwest Region, two spots above the Shockers. Houston is fifth in the South Central and Temple ninth in the Mid-Atlantic.
 
"Winny and Rebekah are two people who have shown, traditionally, when it comes to championship season they get themselves ready," Hunter said. "That makes it comfortable for a coach to know that you have those two. They can do their job, but everybody else has to do their job also."
 
Tulsa has won five straight men's conference titles and is ranked No. 6 nationally and second in the Midwest Region. Wichita State is No. 11 in the region. Temple is third in the Mid-Atlantic and Houston seventh in the South Central.
 
Paul Suellentrop covers Wichita State Athletics and the American Athletic Conference for university Strategic Communications. Contact him at paul.suellentrop@wichita.edu.