Sept. 11, 2008 - UPDATE
College Station - Due to severe weather concerns stemming from Hurricane Ike, the Texas A&M Invitational cross country meet, scheduled for this weekend, will be postponed until Friday, Sept. 19.
Start times for the Invitational will be updated on the website - www.aggieathletics.com.
The University division of the Texas A&M Invitational, held on the Penberthy Intramural field, is scheduled to include 23 schools, many of which comprise the South Central Region in cross country.
In addition to host Texas A&M, who have claimed the men's team title the past five years, competing programs include Baylor, Dallas Baptist, Houston Baptist, Incarnate Word, McMurray, Northwood, Prairie View A&M, Rice women, Sam Houston, SMU women, St. Edward's, Tarleton State, Texas, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Texas A&M-International, Texas-Pan American, Texas-Permian Basin, Texas-San Antonio, Texas State-San Marcos, Trinity, Wayland Baptist and Western Texas College.
Rice enters the meet as the defending women's team while the Texas A&M women finished third a year ago.
Texas A&M entrants in the meet include a senior class consisting of Sarah Balfour and Brenna Williamson on the women's squad along with Mitch Bible, Kevin McNab, Shadrack Songok on the men's team.
Songok, a three-time NCAA champion on the track for Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, is scheduled to make his debut race with the Aggies. McNab, who placed eighth last year, is the top returning Aggie in the men's field.
Balfour paced the A&M women last season, placing fifth, while junior Christina Munoz finished 12th. Balfour and Munoz each earned Big 12 honors last year and Munoz qualified for the NCAA Championship meet as well.
The high school division, which numbers 77 schools, features returning team champions in The Woodlands boys and the Cinco Ranch girls amid the seeded divisions. Other defending champions scheduled to return for title defenses include Atascocita boys (5A-4A), Cypress-Fairbanks girls (5A-4A), and the Awty International boys and girls (3A-2A-1A).