The Aggies ran away with some big wins at the SEC Championship for cross country this past weekend.
Texas A&M men’s cross country team placed second overall, while Karis Jochen’s fifth-place effort led the women’s team to eighth overall at Friday’s races.
The Aggie men also recorded their best finish at the SEC Championship, scoring 98 points behind the nationally-ranked No. 8. Arkansas Razorbacks with 25 points and ahead of Mississippi with 122 points. Their runner-up performance helped solidify the Aggies as a national caliber team, improving from their past two consecutive eighth place finishes at the conference meet.
The women’s team title was also won by Arkansas, totaling 38 points while the Aggies came in eighth place with 249 points. Texas A&M’s Karis Jochen earned first team All-SEC honors but Arin Rice, who usually runs second, for the Aggies did not finish the race.
The rainy weather did not seem to have a huge impact on the times, albeit the conditions for all runners was dicy and strategic.
The Aggies had Cameron Villarreal place eighth in 23:43.6 ahead of Alex Riba’s 13th-place performance, running 23:54.2 and Austin Well’s time of 23:56.6 to finish 14th. With strong finishes to place in the top 14, all three Aggies claimed second team All-SEC honors.
Among other top finishers for Texas A&M was Christian Farris recording a time of 24:17.5 to take 23rd and Ryan Teel also scoring for A&M finished 41st in 24:47.9. The rest of the squad included Colin Stoeber (42nd – 24:48.2), Elliott Farris (59th – 25:01.2), Juan Uribe (87th – 25:49.4), Aaron Murray (91st – 25:52.3) and Jacob Perry (105th – 26:28.7).
On the women’s side, Arkansas won the conference meet for the third consecutive year led by Dominique Scott, winning her third consecutive title. The No. 4 nationally ranked Razorbacks recorded 38 points to take down No. 13 Mississippi State with 95, No. 26 Vanderbilt with 112 and Alabama with 143.
Scott crossed the finish line beating the field of 135 runners in 19:23.5 as Chelsea Blaase from Tennessee was the runner-up in 19:40.9, 17 seconds behind the champion. Vanderbilt’s Caroline Pietrzyk and Auburn’s Brenda Kigen placed third and fourth while Texas A&M’s Karis Jochen finished fifth.
Jochen ran 19:59.2, edging out Arkansas’s Kaitlin Flattman and Alabama’s Katelyn Greenleaf. Kelsey Persyn was the second scorer for A&M, placing 51st and running 21:21.8 along with Haley Deakins placing 70th in 21:41.8. Other top scorers for the Aggies were Katie Watson taking 79th in 21:46.8 and Katie Pia five spots behind in 21:54.0 for 84th.
Also running for the Aggies were Kaitlin Tanner (89th – 22:02.2), Emily Willingham (90th – 22:02.7), Hannah Campell (97th – 22:08.6), Laura Craig (109th – 22:34.7), Devin Norton (116th – 22:44.8) and Lauren Fontana (129th – 23:32.7).
Teams scoring behind the top four at the SEC Championship were Mississippi (147), Auburn (164), Florida (183), Missouri (228), Texas A&M (249) and Georgia (267). Texas A&M has two more weeks to improve until they have the shot at qualifying for nationals on their home course. The Aggies will host the NCAA South Central Regional on Nov. 13.
