Oct. 30, 2008
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Ames, Iowa - Reaching the postseason portion of the cross country season has the Texas A&M program traveling north for the Big 12 Championships this weekend. The Aggie men enter the conference meet ranked No. 18 in the nation and will be one of five Big 12 teams ranked among the top 30.
The meet will be held on the Iowa State course Saturday morning with a start time of 10 a.m. for the women (6,000 meters) and 11 a.m. for the men (8,000 meters). Conditions on race day are forecast to be in the low-to-mid 50s on the hilly course.
Competing for the Aggies at the Big 12 Championships on the men's side will be a crew of nine runners: seniors Kevin McNab, Logan Sherman, Shadrack Songok; juniors Mitch Bible, Joe Sauvageau; sophomore Graham Northcutt; along with freshmen Kevin Burnett and Wes Caceras.
The A&M women's squad of nine will include: juniors Emilie Fischer, Christina Munoz, Elizabeth Slaughter; sophomores Leigh Berger, Kirsten Brown, Alie Cornell, Merideth Snow; and freshman Amber Weems.
A three-time NCAA Champion over 5,000 and 10,000 meters on the track, Songok's first Big 12 Championship meet should have him among the leaders at the finish of the race. His top time over the 8K distance this fall was a 23:33, which he set as the runner-up in the Notre Dame Invitational. Competing for Texas A&M - Corpus Christi, Songok won the Southland Conference title the past two years with a times of 24:05 (2007) and 24:20 (2006).
Texas A&M's last conference champion was Matt Priest in 1995, during the final Southwest Conference cross country meet. The top time recorded by an Aggie in a Big 12 meet is 24:20, set by Juan DeBastos in 2001. DeBastos shares the top individual finish by an A&M runner in the conference race with Scott Lengefeld (1999), as both finished fourth in their respective races.
Munoz, 11th at last year's conference meet, will seek to become the fourth Aggie to lead the women's team twice at the Big 12 Championships. Previous A&M runners achieving that distinction were Andrea Bookout (1999, 2001), Melissa Gulli (2000, 2002) and Vanessa Kelly (2003, 2004). Munoz also could become just the third Aggie female to finish among the top 10 in the conference race, joining Gulli (7th in 2002) and Snow (8th in 2006).
While the Colorado men have claimed all 12 team titles in Big 12 cross country history, they face a stern challenge from third-ranked Oklahoma State for this year's team crown. Colorado is ranked No. 17 in the national poll, one place ahead of the Aggies. Host Iowa State, ranked No. 22, and Texas, ranked No. 30, are the other two programs currently in the top 30 of the poll.
The top returning runner for Colorado is Kenyon Neumann, who was runner-up in the Big 12 race last season. He will be likely be challenged by Oklahoma State's Ryan Vail, who finished third in 2007.
On the women's side Texas Tech returns two-time NCAA champion Sally Kipyego, who has also claimed the past two Big 12 individual titles. In 2006 Kipyego won the conference race by a whopping 45 seconds and last season she topped the field by just seven seconds with Colorado's Jenny Barringer in second place each time. Also returning is last year's third-place finisher in Lisa Koll of Iowa State.
Nationally ranked teams on the women's side include No. 12 Texas Tech, No. 17 Baylor and No. 27 Nebraska. Colorado women have won the women's team title in 11 of the past 12 seasons. The lone exception was in 1998 when Kansas State defeated the Buffaloes.