BETHANY, Okla. – Oklahoma City University's men's cross country team vies for its fifth consecutive conference championship in Saturday's Sooner Athletic Conference Championships at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Eldon Lyon Park. 
 
The men will run in a 8,000-meter race. OCU enters the event ranked sixth in the latest NAIA top 25 poll. 
 
OCU has had a dominant season with first-place team finishes at the Midwestern State Mustang Invitational on Oct. 9 and Mid-States Classic on Oct. 23. The Stars finished in sixth place in a field of 36 teams, many of them from the NCAA Division I ranks, at the Chile Pepper Festival at the University of Arkansas on Oct. 1. 
 
Defending NAIA national champion Zouhair Talbi and defending national runner-up Shimales Abebe have been dominant for the Stars. Talbi is a two-time NAIA Cross Country Runner of the Week recipient this fall, earning the honor after first place finishes at the Chile Pepper Festival and Southwestern College Mid-States Classic. Talbi broke the meet record with a time of 24 minutes, 21.7 seconds in winning the conference title March 27 at Woodson Park in Oklahoma City.
 
Abebe earned NAIA Runner of the Week honors after finishing in 17th place at the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree on Sept. 18. He was the only runner among the top-20 finishers not from an NCAA Division I team in that meet. Abebe took runner-up in last year's SAC Championships. Three Stars finished among the top five as Emmanuel Kipruto grabbed fourth in the SAC meet. OCU boasted of nine all-conference runners.
 
First-year head coach Frezer Legesse says the SAC meet is an important step for his program to compete and prepare for what lays ahead at the NAIA Championships, which will be held on Nov. 19 in Vancouver, Wash.
 
"Our No. 1 mission is to compete well and punch our ticket to nationals," Legesse said. "This means winning the conference title. Our student-athletes have worked very hard since the summer to expect nothing less. This meet is very important as it holds our ticket to Vancouver. We are very excited to get out there and race."  

OCU has taken five national championships in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019.