Last Saturday, both the men and women’s cross country teams came away with a first place finish at the Texas A&M Invitational held on the Watts Cross Country.
Although the weather was less than ideal, Texas A&M assistant coach Wendel McRaven said the he was glad that despite the rain throughout week, the course allowed the invitational to go on
“The course held up well from all the rain we received the last couple of weeks,” McRaven said to 12thman.com
McRaven said he sees growth on both the men and the women’s team. McRaven said the success is a testament to the conditioning and workouts the team has been working through.
“The kids ran well,” McRaven said to 12thman.com. “We’re training hard this time of the season, so you will see people react differently to racing through that tired-leg feeling. We won both team titles, so that’s good. I thought we had some good groups running together, and that was pretty impressive. It increased the maturity on the men’s side. While on the women’s side some people are coming out of the woodwork and producing good races.”
The Aggie women’s team was led by Kelsie Warren, who finished in third place with a time of 21:50.37 during the 6,000 meter race. Teammates Ashley Driscoll, Nikki Keys, Carrie Fish, Lizette Chapa, and Rachel Bernardo also placed 13th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th, respectively.
After the race, Warren said she was glad to see the hard work the team has put in pay off with a first place victory.
“I’m really proud of our girls. We’ve been putting in some really hard work during practice,” Warren said to 12thman.com . “The biggest thing I did today was I told myself just to have fun. This is early in the season and I’m just happy to be out here racing healthy. So, for me it was get out here, move the legs and test yourself.”
The Aggie men’s team was led by Jacob Perry. Perry finished the 8,000 meter race with a time of 24:57.80, and finished in 11th place. Aggies Jon Bishop, Brandt Preston, Zephyr Seagraves, and Wes McPhail placed 13,15,16,17.