UA Cossatot Athletics Announces Addition of Cross Country, with Soto as First Head Coach
De Queen, Ark. - The University of Arkansas Cossatot continues to grow its young athletic department, announcing Tuesday that UAC has added a cross country program, led by head coach Tony Soto
With men's basketball, women's basketball, men's soccer, women's soccer and shooting sports programs already in place, they are now joined by another Colts program.
UA Cossatot Chancellor Steve Cole remarked "We are excited to get going with the addition of a cross country program to our athletic department. Cross country has a strong local tradition here and made the most sense as the next sport to add, bringing us to four sports in total. Tony Soto is the right person to lead our new program and we are excited to see what we can accomplish under his leadership."
Athletic Director Stan Asumnu added: "I am proud to introduce Cross Country to our Athletic Program here at UA Cossatot. This program represents our dedication to providing diverse opportunities for students to compete, grow, and succeed both academically and athletically. We are thrilled to welcome Head Coach Tony Soto to our UA Cossatot athletics family. His passion for the sport, dedication to academic and athletic excellence, and ability to build a strong team culture make him the ideal leader for our cross-country program."
Soto takes helm with ample experience in cross country, having run for De Queen High School.
Soto holds the fourth-best 5K time for state meets in Leopards history, at a time of 16:59.00, and was named All-State in 1999. Soto placed third at the 1999 Arkansas Indoor HS Championships in the 1,600m (4:48.71) and 3,200m with a time of 10:47.38. Soto joined the National Guard in 2000, being deployed to Iraq in 2004-2005 & again in 2008 and was deployed to Africa in 2017. In total Soto completed 20 years of active duty and retired from the guard on July 31, 2024.
Soto, who expressed gratitude for his time running for De Queen Cross Country, said he is excited to start the program at UA Cossatot.
"When Coach Don Higgins first started the program at De Queen High School, I believe I ran for him the second year. Coach Higgins introduced me to cross country and I basically learned everything about the sport from him""I'm HONORED and EXCITED to start this journey on building the XC program in my hometown! We, the RUNNERS and I, get to be the first to build the foundation of something special here! We will TRAIN HARD but we will have FUN doing it!"
UAC Cross Country will begin action this fall, and as of now plan to mainly run in Arkansas and Oklahoma, with other race locations also possible.