Houston’s Cadence Patterson looks to fuel another run to cross country regionals

Before a meet, a lot of athletes like to fuel themselves with protein, but junior distance runner Cadence Patterson likes to fuel herself with homemade sourdough bread.

“I literally brought a loaf of bread with me to conference last year,” Patterson said. “After you start making your own bread, store bought bread doesn’t hit the same.”

Patterson started baking at a young age, and since the summer of 2025 has picked up the pace, making it for customers all around campus.

“I always loved baking. I grew up baking. My grandma she’s a huge baker, a huge cook, so I think just like learning from her, she taught me how to do that,” Patterson said. “I’ve made bread for some teammates; my teammates are nice enough to buy it from me. And I made it for coach a couple of times.”

Right now, her future with baking is undetermined, but Patterson is enjoying every moment she can take to engage with her hobby.

“For now, it’s like something that I kind of do for enjoyment and to bring joy to other people too,” Patterson said.

For cross country, it a much simpler recipe for Patterson.

“I think just the competitive portion about cross-country kind of drew me in,” Patterson said.

Now Patterson has seen her competitive success come to life as she has led the Cougars in each of her first two meets.

At the Aggie Opener Patterson achieved a fifth place individual finish in the 2-mile race in 10:51.8.

At the Aggie Invitational Patterson recorded a 5k personal best of 17:35.5 and a 10^th place individual finish on Sept. 4.

Patterson earned Big 12 Runner of the week for her performance, becoming the first Cougar to receive the honor.

She recorded a 6k personal best at the Arturo Barrios Invitational with a 20:22.1 on Oct.16.

While the regular season’s accomplishments are helping Paterson achieve her goals, she is looking forward to thinking about her team and focusing a bit on what is to come.

“Conference is something that I think about daily. Getting ready for regional is something I think about daily, just because I am just competitive,” Patterson said. “I think as a team, we do a good job of focusing, and by thinking about it daily, it’s like you’re gonna get yourself there.”

The expectation for Patterson?

To build and develop.

“I’ve talked about with coach the expectation is to finish all region,” Patterson said. ” Just need to go out, get it done, and just keep growing, evolving, and stacking consistent days of work.”

Patterson will look to build on her productive meets when she and the Cougars compete at the Big 12 Championship on Oct. 31, ahead of her third straight regional appearance.