Marissa Kuik
Sep 5, 20236 min
Written by Marissa Kuik, additional commentary & edits by Gavin Struve & Garrett Zatlin
NOTE: Earlier this summer, The Stride Report reached out to nearly every team that was considered for a possible ranking this summer. While we did receive numerous responses and great clarity, we did not get a 100% response rate. On rare occasions, we are referencing TFFRS in order to talk about returners and athletes who are out of eligibility.
The entire 2022 cross country season for the Lady Buffaloes was spearheaded by low-stick stars Florance Uwajeneza and Eleonora Curtabbi. Those two women consistently finished right next to each other during the fall months and were the core reasons why this team earned an at-large bid and top-half finish at the NCAA XC Championships.
However, West Texas A&M will now be without their top runner in Uwajeneza, a development that could have made the expectations for this look significantly different in 2023. And yet, that loss may not be an issue in the grand scheme of things.
With key returners and transfer additions, this program has a shot at being even better than they were last year. That's something that we can rarely say about a team that just lost a superstar-caliber scorer.
In their first meet of the 2022 cross country season, West Texas A&M ran at the Big Country XC Festival. Thanks to top finishes from Uwajeneza (2nd), Curtabbi (4th) and Betty Bajika (6th), they finished runner-up ahead of multiple Division One opponents.
Rounding out the scoring five were Lexi Maul in 15th place and Raquel Chavez in 19th place. All told, it was a very strong start for this team, especially for a bigger opening season race. However, we wouldn't learn a ton about this team until later in the season.
The Buffs produced yet another runner-up result against a comparable field at the Texas Tech Open, although this time, Uwajeneza and Curtabbi went 1-2. Chavez, freshman Anete Randma and Bajika all held their own by placing 12th, 28th and 31st, respectively. That was a big race for Chavez who, initially, appeared to be more of a backend scorer.
West Texas A&M then ventured to the Louisville XC Classic where they finished 20th in the "Gold race", a 41-team field littered with D1 and D2 programs.
Uwajeneza (9th) and Curtabbi (19th) predictably provided a burst of up-front scoring power. However, with their final three scorers all sitting well outside of the top-100, the Buffaloes' scoring wasn’t complete enough to compete at the top of the field.
Fellow D2 counterparts Lee (Tenn.) and Cedarville, for example, finished 11th and 10th place, respectively, among the ocean of Division One teams.
In the postseason, West Texas A&M produced a familiar runner-up result at the Lone Star Conference XC Championships, losing to a Dallas Baptist team by 11 points. But truthfully, the race was much closer than the results indicated and the Buffaloes actually ran fairly well.
Uwajeneza won the individual conference title while Curtabbi placed 3rd. Chavez and Bajika were really solid as well in 7th and 8th place. But with Maul as the fifth scorer all the way back in 25th, the Buffs weren’t in close contention for the conference title.
Yes, their depth was a clear limiting factor, but there was still a clear path towards postseason success for this team if everyone ran at their best on the same day.
West Texas A&M continued their steady running as they got deeper into the postseason. The Lady Buffs finished 6th at the uber-competitive South Central Regional XC Championships, this time finishing ahead of Dallas Baptist.
Once again, Uwajeneza and Curtabbi finished 1-2 ahead of the whole regional field. The latter-half of this scoring group featured Bajika (45th), Chavez (59th) and Lexi Maul (68th) who all offered just enough depth to be competitive.
Though the gap between their top-two runners and the rest of the top-five was measurable, it came in a formidable field, and West Texas A&M still managed to keep their group close enough to comfortably earn an at-large bid for the 2022 NCAA XC Championships.
The team's scoring structure for the cross country national meet was quite similar to what we saw on the regional stage. Once again, Uwajeneza and Curtabbi finished next to each other in 5th and 6th place, offering tremendous firepower.
Meanwhile, Bajika placed a strong 70th, but placements of 151st and 207th from their fourth and fifth runners did bring up the team score. That is what ultimately led West Texas A&M to a 13th place finish in Seattle.
After last fall, West Texas A&M likely knows that they would have to improve their backend placements in order to perform better at the national meet. And perhaps more importantly, they also have to replace one of their all-time best runners in Florance Uwajeneza.
We can only wait and see if the Buffs improve in the former area. Natural growth should benefit this squad. However, finding another low-stick replacement for Uwajeneza is something that has already been addressed.
Coach Zach Daniel went out and landed Elise Leveel from Charleston (WV). Our TSR #17 runner in our preseason individual top-25 rankings was already a top-half All-American as an underclassman last fall! She is a massive recruiting win for this program.
Leveel owns PRs of 16:49 (5k indoors) and 35:34 (10k). Though she may not replace all of Uwajeneza's scoring potency, she will come close to it. The former Charleston (WV) runner should serve as the perfect low-stick complement to Curtabbi.
Of course, make no mistake, Curtabbi should continue to thrive as the focal star of this team. That’s especially true after an impressive year on the track in which she won another steeplechase national title and ran personal bests over 1500 meters, the mile, the 3000 meters and the steeplechase.
But what if I told you that Leveel isn’t the only accomplished newcomer joining this squad in for the fall of 2023?
The Buffaloes are also bringing in Olivia McLain from Lee (Tenn.), a fairly promising developmental name. She placed 168th at the 2022 cross national country meet which is truthfully not a result that jumps off the page.
However, this former Flame would have been the Lady Buffs’ fifth scorer last year at the national meet and she continued to improve on the track, running PRs of 17:14 (5k) and 35:34 (10k). With greater experience, McLain should be a fairly notable contributing factor going into this new season, effectively strengthening West Texas A&M's middle-lineup spots.
Another major factor for the Buffs this fall will be Bajika who experienced a considerable jump in her fitness throughout recent cross country and track seasons. She already finished 70th at the cross country national meet and ran PRs in almost every event during last track season, including a 16:47 (5k) mark this past spring.
Don't sleep on Bajika this fall, she may turn out to be a lot better than some people realize.
But...who will regularly fill the final scoring spot on this team? That is one of the Buffaloes' largest and most important questions.
Both Chavez and Maul have experience. The former made some recent jumps in fitness on the middle distance side, running PRs of 2:11 (800) and 4:34 (1500). However, she will need to translate that speed to the cross country course.
Maul also ran personal bests on the indoor oval over 3000 meters and 5000 meters. The same could be said about her spring campaign over the 5k and 10k distances. Still, we will have to see if those improvements are good enough to help West Texas A&M improve on their 13th place finish at the national meet.
Kallie Bullard was another varsity contributor last year in her freshman campaign. Teammate Randma is no longer with the program. West Texas A&M also added Sarah Koomson, a freshman from Ghana with credentials of 4:32 (1500) and 17:10 (5k). She could be a scorer if she can quickly acclimate to the NCAA scene.
When you step back, you begin to realize that this team has more scoring options that you initially anticipated them to have.
Even without Uwajeneza, West Texas A&M has a very good chance of improving on their 2022 cross country season.
With the addition of Leveel, the Buffs have similar firepower while McLain and Bajika should hold down the middle of the lineup. Internal progression should lead to notable improvements at the backend.
There’s only so much scoring that Curtabbi and Leveel can cut off assuming that they return to the levels that they reached last fall. But women like Bajika, McLain, Koomson, Chavez and the rising sophomores are what makes this team dangerous. With better scoring support, we see this squad as our TSR #10 team.
The Buffaloes look like a far more complete squad than a year ago with a more-defined lineup structure. They still need those projected improvements to actually happen, but this looks very much like the Lone Star Conference favorite...and perhaps something more.