EVANSVILLE, Ind. – University of Evansville Director of Cross Country/Track & Field Brooks LeCompte announced his 2023 cross country schedule on Friday, which features a pair of meets on UE's home course.

LeCompte announced a schedule Friday which not only included two meets at the Angel Mounds Cross Country Course in Evansville, but also featured return trips for UE to the LaVern Gibson Cross Country Course in Terre Haute and Louisville's E.P. "Tom" Sawyer State Park.  For LeCompte, the return trips this year are by design.

"Our 2023 schedule has a lot of similarities to 2022, as I want to establish some familiarity with where we, as a cross country program, compete each year," said LeCompte.  "Angel Mounds, LaVern Gibson, and Tom Sawyer are all courses that I'm familiar with, and I know what a performance there means as far as where we are as a team, and what we need to work on to be the team we want to be, come championship time.

"Our primary focus is to get the UE cross country program to finish higher in the Missouri Valley Conference.  I am highly confident that both teams can potentially place higher this year than they've ever placed in the Valley.  That familiarity of the regular-season schedule will aid in fueling our championship goals."

The 2023 cross country season will begin at the Stegemoller Classic at Angel Mounds Cross Country Course in Evansville on Friday, September 1.  The meet will be a shorter meet, with a women's 4-K set to be followed by a men's 6-K beginning at 5:45 p.m., but it will allow a nearly brand-new UE cross country team to discover what Division I cross country is all about.

Two weeks later, the Purple Aces will compete in the standard 8-K and 5-K distances for men's and women's cross country at Indiana State's John McNichols Invitational in Terre Haute on Saturday, September 16.  The meet is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. central time to avoid the potential for heat in mid-September.

Evansville will then return to Louisville, Kentucky two weeks later to compete in one of the nation's largest cross country meets – the 22nd-Annual Live In Lou Classic at E.P. "Tom Sawyer" Park in Louisville on Saturday, September 30.  Last year, over 130 schools from across the NCAA, NAIA and junior college ranks competed in the meet.

The Purple Aces will then take two weeks off, before returning home to Angel Mounds Cross Country Course for the Angel Mounds Invitational in Evansville on Friday, October 13.  The women's 6-K championship-distance race will kick-off the meet at 9 a.m., with the men's 8-K event scheduled to follow at 10 a.m.

The post-season will then begin for UE at the end of October, as the Purple Aces will take part in the Missouri Valley Conference Championships in Nashville, Tennessee on Friday, October 27.  UE will then travel to Madison, Wisconsin on Friday, November 10 to run in the 2023 NCAA Great Lakes Regional Championships.

Evansville returns just two runners from last year's squads in junior Adam Oulgout (St. Paul, Minn./Central) and sophomore Joey Taylor (Grove City, Ohio/Central Crossing) on the men's side.  But, both teams welcome numerous newcomers with strong running resumes.  On the men's team, UE welcomes nine-time United Kingdom national cross country qualifier Samuel Lea (Worcester, United Kingdom), as well as top distance runners from Spain, Italy, Poland, Canada, as well as the United States.  On the women's side, UE will welcome 10 new runners to the cross country team, including freshman Sonja Inzinger (Mautern an der Donau, Austria), the 2023 U20 Austrian National Cross Country champion.