In front of thousands of spectators representing each SEC school and including SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, the Texas A&M men’s cross country team placed eighth out of 14 schools, while the women secured 10th place out of 16 schools at Friday’s nationally televised SEC Championships races at the Watts Cross Country Course.
In the postseason opener, the Maroon and White played host to a talented field of competition, including five nationally-ranked squads across both divisions. The Aggie men scored 207 points and the Aggie women finished with 269 points. It marked A&M’s third year in a row with top-10 finishes by both squads.
Arkansas impressed in the men’s division, scoring 38 points on its way to an SEC Championship with Alabama taking second place with 52 points. On the women’s side, Alabama won the SEC Championship after scoring 72 points, with Tennessee not far behind at 103 points for second place.
For the first time this season, freshman Gilbert Rono paced the Aggie men at 23 minutes and 28 seconds for a 30th-place finish out of 126 runners in the 8K event. Freshman Jack Johnston finished in 36th place with a time of 23:37.1.
In the women’s division, junior Kennady Fontenot led the Aggies in the 6K event with a time of 20:11.8, placing 40th out of 171 runners. Freshman Megan Roberts clocked a time of 20:14.4, good for 45th place.
“We had higher expectations, especially competing at home,” distance coach Wendel McRaven said. “We’ve got some work to do going into regionals on the women’s side. On the men’s side, the top two teams [Arkansas and Alabama] are two of the best in the country, and then there’s a whole group of teams in the middle. We had a shot to be one of those teams in that mix.”
Arkansas senior Patrick Kiprop set a new course record, finishing with a time of 21:57.0, roughly four seconds faster than the previous Watts Cross Country Course record set by Texas Tech freshman Solomon Kipchoge at this season’s Arturo Barrios Invitational.
Despite the Arkansas men’s finish, 17th-year coach Chris Bucknam said he was not wholly satisfied with his team’s showing and knows there is still more work to do.
“We’re going to have to tighten it up between our first and fifth guys,” Bucknam said. “We’ve got to continue to be happy, be in good spirits, take care of our bodies and get ready for one more big race. We’ve got to come back here in a couple of weeks and get through regionals.”
Rounding out the Aggie finishes following Rono and Johnston were sophomore Zack Munger in 43rd at 23:42.2, senior Jonathan Chung in 45th at 23:42.5 and freshman Luca Santorum in 62nd at 24:08.8 for the men. Other point scorers for the women included freshman Maddie Peters in 52nd at 20:19.0, sophomore Shewaye Johnson in 67th at 20:37.0 and junior Elise Smoot in 73rd at 20:39.9.
“We dug ourselves too deep of a hole,” McRaven said. “We know our course. We should have run it a little bit more intelligently.”
The NCAA South Central Regional races are scheduled for Nov. 15, with A&M again hosting at the Watts Cross Country Course.
Kaleb Bunker is a political science senior and contributed this article from the course JOUR 359, Reporting Sports, to The Battalion.
