Friday afternoon, in front of A&M fans, the men’s and women’s cross country team finished in the top two spots of the Aggieland Open.
The women won their portion of the meet behind the efforts of senior Devin Norton. Norton led the pack for the Aggies, running the 5000-meter distance in 18:57.7 to finish second overall. Following the meet, Norton said it felt good to get back into the groove of things after struggling to start the year.
“I’m really excited about this race. I’m a senior this year and my season got off to a rough start,” Norton said. “So, it was good to get a good race under my belt. I had Olivia [Arriaza] and Lizette [Chapa] right there with me during the race, which was awesome.”
On the men’s side of the meet, A&M came in second by scoring 42 points. Ryan Trahan’s efforts led him to a third place finish on the Dale Watts course.
“I thought they competed well,” A&M assistant coach Wendel McRaven told 12thman.com. “It was pretty hot out and I wanted them to be a little bit conservative early in race, but they didn’t quite listen to that 100 percent. They got out a little bit aggressively. The result was good.”
As the women’s team clinched their title, Tarleton State, Baylor, Sam Houston State, UTSA, Louisiana-Monroe, Prairie View and Texas Southern all finished behind by a wide margin.
Not only did Norton shine in the Aggieland Open, two other Aggies finished within four seconds of each other. Sophomore Olivia Arriaza and junior Lizette Chapa finished along with Norton in the top ten.
As for the men, Ryan Trahan led the team to a 7, 9, 10 and 13, placing to complete the team’s scoring. Juan Uribe finished ninth, Sam Erikson finished eleventh, Zephyr Seagraves finished twelfth and Eli Canal finished fifteenth.
“It was a bit of a relief coming down to a 5k after opening at 6,000 meters and moving up to 8,000 meters,” Trahan said to 12thman.com. “With the 5k, a shorter race, it feels more like a sprint compared to the longer distances we race. The finish of the race came down to four or five runners in the last 600m. I gave it a good effort and the Tarleton guys had a nice kick today.”
Tarleton State’s Justin Botello and Quenten Lasseter stood out as Tarleton State clinched the men’s team title with 37 points.
Despite the result, McRaven said he was pleased with the way the men ran, saying there’s always room for improvement.
“Its was a chance for them to run a shorter distance both for training as well as an opportunity to potentially make the travel squad,” McRaven told 12thman.com. “It was good for them, and obviously we wanted to win on the men’s side as well. We came close to pulling it off.”