Texas A&M men and women’s cross country placed third and fourth, respectively, in the Gold division on Friday, Oct. 3, at Paul Short Run in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Hosted by Lehigh University, the Goodman Campus Cross Country Course accommodated 40 schools, including No. 11 Syracuse, No. 28 Georgetown and No. 29 Harvard.
In the third meet of the season, senior Cooper Cawthra placed fourth overall for A&M in the 8,000-meter run with a time of 23:20.9, with junior Jack Johnston finishing close behind with a time of 23:28.0, placing 10th.
The Aggie men’s side placed third out of the 40 teams with 137 points in the 8,000, trailing behind Georgetown which side ran away with the race with 102 points — 21 points better than second-place Utah State with 123 points.
“Cooper [Cawthra] and Jack [Johnston] are both running at a higher level than they ever have in cross country,” assistant coach Wendel McRaven said. “They gave us two low scores at the front. Victor [Kibiego] and Youssef [Asslouj] did a very nice job in their season openers and Carter [Gordy] has just become a steady mister reliable for us.”
On the women’s side, in the 6,000 meter, sophomore Megan Roberts and freshman Debora Cherono finished less than five seconds apart, finishing 11th with a time of 20:02.7 and 13th at 20:06.3, respectively. Sophomore Joyce Kemboi placed in the top 25, finishing at 22nd in 20:21.1.
The squad finished fourth overall in the 6,000 with 172 points. Villanova took home the gold with 110 points, with Penn State right behind with 115. Georgetown rounded out the top 3 with 143 points.
“It’s great to go to a meet like Paul Short where we will see big fields and a lot of teams from different parts of the country,” McRaven said. “This is the kind of meet, along with our own Barrios meet, that really helps get us ready for the kind of competition we will see in the postseason.”
Despite a lack of individual top-10 finishers in the women’s division, their combined points led the Fightin’ Farmers to a top-5 team finish.
“A very solid trip for us,” McRaven said. “Both teams ran very well and, more importantly, competed tough. We took some chances out there, both groups were out aggressively, and that will pay off down the line.”
A&M headed into the Paul Short Run undefeated and will have a two-week break before hosting the Arturo Barrios Invitational on Friday, Oct. 17, at the Watts Cross Country Course in College Station.
