August 31, 2007
Texas A&M cross country posted a pair of top three team finishes to start the season during the Twilight Invitational at the Baylor Intramural Fields.
The Aggie women placed second to Baylor, 21-69, while finishing ahead of Lamar (77), SMU (115), TCU (133), Houston (151), Dallas Baptist (173), Texas Lutheran (228) and UT-Tyler (237).
Merideth Snow completed the 4,000-meter course in 14 minutes, 17.1 seconds to place 14th. Sarah Balfour, who ran unattached, placed 13th in 14:16.9.
Texas A&M men scored 62 points to place third behind Lamar (43) and Texas (57). Finishing behind the Aggies were Baylor (99), UT-Tyler (142), TCU (159), Houston (170) and Dallas Baptist (177).
The leading finisher for the Aggies was Andrew Montes, who completed the 6,000-meter distance in 18:49.3. David Hebert competed unattached and challenged for the win with a third-place finish. His time of 18:05.5 trailed only Lamar?â„¢s Francis Kasagule (17:59.9) and TCU?â„¢s Festus Kigen (18:01.4).
Teams had to wait through an hour delay as lightning strikes in the area were quickly followed by heavy rain. Conditions cooled temperature-wise, and the footing remained firm on the intramural fields.
Following Montes, the A&M men had three runners finish within four places of one another. Kevin Ondrasek placed 12th in 18:56.1 while Joe Sauvageau finished 14th in 19:04.0 and Nick Toohey ran 19:04.6 for 15th.
Logan Sherman, the fifth scorer for the Aggie men, led the next wave of Aggie runners as he finished 18th (19:10.3) with Mitch Bible, competing unattached, placing 22nd (19:17.4). Matt Ross crossed the finish line in 23rd place (19:19.3) while Ben Schulz took 25th (19:24.6).
Rounding out the scoring portion for the Aggie women were sophomore Christina Munoz in 17th (14:34.3) along with a freshmen duo of Kasey McNorton at 18th (14:36.9) and Alie Cornell in 20th (14:38.1).
Junior Brenna Williamson was the fifth runner to complete the A&M team score in placing 21st (14:44.5). Sophomore Leigh Berger finished 22nd (14:47.8) with newcomer Kirsten Brown getting 25th (15:05.6).
The Aggie men featured a number of newcomers, some of which were competing unattached in their initial race with the program.
Pacing the A&M frosh on the men?â„¢s side was Graham Northcutt in 28th (19:31.8). Following were a pair of unattached runners in Wes Caceres (37th, 19:48.1) and Ryan Snapp (40th, 19:57.5).