Both Texas A&M men and women’s cross country made history with their impressive finishes at the Arturo Barrios Invitational at Watts Cross Country Course on Friday, Oct. 17.
The men’s team took home first place — for the first time at the invitational since 2022 — and the women’s team placed third. The Aggies improved on their performance from two weeks prior at the Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where the men and women placed third and fourth, respectively.
The men were victorious in the 8,000 meter run out of the 34 teams competing with 51 points, followed by Middle Tennessee State, with 89 points and Stephen F. Austin rounded out the top three with 101 points.
In a meet defined by broken records for the Maroon and White, fifth-year senior Cooper Cawthra broke another school record by becoming the first Aggie to finish the Arturo Barrios Invitational in under 23 minutes, placing fourth overall.
Despite his individual success, Cawthra credited his teammates after the race for his performance.
“I couldn’t have done it without my boys out there,” Cawthra said. “If nothing else, it shows how strong we are as a team.”
Juniors Jack Johnston and Youssef Asslouj also placed in the top 10 at No. 7 and No. 8 with times of 23:07.3 and 23:17.8, respectively.
“It’s a pretty good group heading into the championship season,” assistant coach Wendel McRaven said. “They’ve got some momentum right now.”
Despite finishing 80th overall, junior Aiden Gonzalez-Rodiles might’ve walked away from the meet with the best trophy of them all: his Aggie Ring. McRaven presented Gonzalez-Rodiles with the prize on the finish line after the race.
“As a person who’s worked here but never went to school here, it’s something that I think is really special,” McRaven said. “I’m almost jealous that I don’t have one.”
In what was the highest finish in school history for the Arturo Barrios Invitational, the women’s team placed third in the 6,000 meter race out of the 38 teams competing, with 113 points. Wake Forest won first place with 78 points, followed closely by LSU in second with 88 points.
Freshman Debora Cherono placed 12th overall in the women’s event with a time of 19:56.8, the top finisher for the Aggies. She barely beat out teammate, sophomore Joyce Kemboi, who came in just behind Cherono at 13th with a time of 19:57.3.
The depth and youth of the A&M women’s team contributed heavily as sophomore Megan Roberts and freshmen Sophia Bendet and San Juanita Leal all finished within the top 35 for the Maroon and White.
“It’s a young group, obviously, but a pretty experienced group,” McRaven said.
Despite a historic finish from the team, McRaven said there is still room for improvement.
“We kind of got stuck in that medium ground where we were kind of fast but not super fast, but we were kind of controlled but not completely controlled,” McRaven said. “We did close well but still we think we were a little bit better than that.”
The Aggies will now look ahead into the post season as they will compete at the Southeastern Conference Championships in Knoxville, Tennessee, at the Cherokee Farm Cross Country Course on Friday, Oct. 31, starting at 9 a.m.
