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.