The Aggie men’s and women’s cross country teams will begin their second event of the season by hosting just their second invitational at their new course Saturday at the Hildebrand Equine Complex.
The men will begin the 6,000m trek at 8 a.m., while the women will start their 4,000m run at 8:45. Eleven of the teams participating are in the south central region, while Texas Tech comes from the mountain region. Seven of the 12 schools have both their men’s and women’s teams nationally ranked.
Assistant coach Wendel McRaven is looking forward to the challenge and seeing how his runners will fare.
“We’re looking at getting back into the racing mode,” McRaven said. “We’ve been training now for about five weeks and looked really good in our season opener. I’m excited to see where we stack up against a good regional field, most of the teams we will end up seeing in the month of November. It’s a good chance to see where we stack up in late September.”
The Aggie men are led by senior Isaac Spencer, who earned All-SEC honors in 2013 and also qualified for the NCAA championships as an individual runner. McRaven sees Spencer as a leader of the squad.
“I’m hoping that he will continue to become a leader, both an emotional leader for the team as well as a leader on the course,” McRaven said. “He continues to set a good example and he’s a guy that helps keep the front group working together. Hopefully he can parlay some of his national experience from last year and the confidence that comes with that to keep his guys calm and focused.”
The Aggie women come into the season with momentum, recording their highest finish in conference history last season with a second-place finish at the SEC championships. Returning seniors Hillary Montgomery and Grace Fletcher as well as sophomore Karis Jochen hope to continue that success this fall season.
“We’ve got a dynamic trio on the women’s side that are close to the top of the SEC,” McRaven said. “On the men’s side we’ve got a group that is beginning to mature and might surprise some people before the end of the season.”