The Texas A&M cross country team came through with a strong performance at the Battle in Beantown hosted by Boston College on Friday, Sept. 29.
The women’s team started out with a bang as junior Maddie Livingston hopped out to a quick lead with a 4:48.8 split at the 1.5K mark. Sophomore Kennady Fontenot, freshman Shewaye Johnson and sophomore Madison Brown followed closely behind at fourth, seventh and 10th place with 1.5K splits of 4:59.0, 4:59.1 and 4:59.4 respectively.
Livingston finished in 11th place with a time of 17:30.9 while Brown finished just behind her in 12th place with a time of 17:31.4. The Aggies had three others finish in the top 50 as Fontenot placed 14th with a time of 17:32.4, Johnson placed 23rd with a time of 17:43.1 and sophomore Emma Little placed 49th with a time of 18:10.0. Freshman Amanda Hogan and Maddie Jones also ran well with times of 18:25.2 and 18:53.7.
On the men’s side, senior Eric Casarez led the way with a third place 1.5K split of 4:19.5 while junior Jonathan Chung and freshman Jack Johnston rounded out the top three with splits of 4:20.6 and 4:20.7. Sophomore Cooper Cawthra, freshman Aiden Gonzalez-Rodiles and junior Joseph Benn followed closely with splits of 4:20.8, 4:21.3 and 4:22.7.
Casarez had a first place 5k split of 15:11.6, but ultimately placed fifth with a time of 23:55.7. Chung placed 11th with a time of 24:20.0 to continue the strong start to his season. The top performing freshmen were Johnston, who placed 29th with a time of 24:47.8, and Gonazalez-Rodiles who placed 40th with a time of 24:56.7.
When it came to final scores, the Maroon and Whites placed third on the women’s side with 107 points. Harvard and Penn were the only colleges to score fewer with 61 and 103 points respectively. A&M placed fifth in the men’s side with 124 points while Harvard led with 47 points.
The Aggies’ next race will be the Arturo Barrios Invitational at College Station’s Watts Cross Country Course on Friday, Oct. 13.