Oct. 7, 2008
Irving, Texas - Texas A&M senior Shadrack Songok earned his second Big 12 Runner of the Week honor following his runner-up performance at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Indiana, this past weekend.
The effort by Songok led the Aggies to a third-place team finish among a field of 25 teams which included six squads ranked among the top 30 in the nation. Texas A&M, ranked No. 28 going into the meet, had its top five runners place among the top 50 in compiling a score of 136.
Songok covered the 8,000-meter course in 23 minutes, 33 seconds as he paced the lead pack for a majority of the race. Songok recorded splits of 4:36, 4:50 (9:26), 4:43 (14:09), 4:50 (18:59) and 4:34 (23:33) on the nine-hole golf course.
This was the second race of the season for Songok as an Aggie. He made his debut at the Texas A&M Invitational on September 19, where he won the race and earned his first Big 12 weekly honor.
Texas A&M will compete next at the Chili Pepper Festival hosted by the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville on Saturday, Oct. 18. Songok, who won last year's Chili Pepper title, also posted a win on the Arkansas course last November while a member of the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi squad to claim the NCAA South Central region title.
NATIONAL and REGION RANKINGS
Texas A&M improved to No. 20 in the national rankings, issued by United States Track and Field Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA), following their third-place team performance in the Notre Dame Invitational. The Aggies were No. 26 in the preseason rankings and No. 28 prior to last weekend's race.
In the process of moving up eight positions in the national poll, the Aggies are now ranked ahead of Texas, who is stationed at No. 21. There are four Big 12 schools ranked among the top 20 nationally. The programs include: No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 3 Colorado, No. 11 Iowa State, and No. 20 Texas A&M.
In regional rankings the Aggie men remain No. 2 in the South Central region behind Texas and ahead of Arkansas. The rest of the top five includes Lamar and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
The Texas A&M women remain at No. 6 in the region poll behind Arkansas, Baylor, Rice, SMU and Texas.
NATIONAL POLL - Division I Men
Oct. 7th, 2008
Ranking Team (first place votes) Region/Rank Totals
1 Oregon - (12) West-1 360 2 Oklahoma State Midwest-1 348 3 Colorado Mountain-1 322 4 Portland West-2 314 5 Wisconsin Great Lakes-1 313 6 Alabama South-1 293 7 Iona College Northeast-1 288 8 Georgetown Mid-Atlantic-1 261 9 Michigan Great Lakes-2 250 10 Stanford West-3 247 11 Iowa State Midwest-2 232 12 Virginia Southeast-1 214 13 Florida State South-3 208 14 Minnesota Midwest-3 200 15 North Carolina State Southeast-2 181 16 Auburn South-2 176 16 Northern Arizona Mountain-2 176 18 BYU Mountain-3 170 19 Tulsa Midwest-4 142 20 Texas A&M South Central-2 121 21 Texas South Central-1 119 22 Providence Northeast-2 110 23 UCLA West-4 89 24 William & Mary Southeast-3 77 25 California West-6 76 26 Syracuse Northeast-3 61 27 Arkansas South Central-3 47 28 Villanova Mid-Atlantic-2 43 29 Cal Poly West-5 41 30 Michigan State Great Lakes-3 34
REGION POLLS
South Central Men 1. Texas 2. Texas A&M 3. Arkansas 4. Lamar 5. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 6. McNeese State 7. Louisiana Tech 8. Stephen F. Austin 9. LSU 10. Rice 11. Texas-Arlington 12. Baylor 13. Sam Houston 14. UALR 15. UTPA
South Central Women 1. Arkansas 2. Baylor 3. Rice 4. Southern Methodist 5. Texas 6. Texas A&M 7. TAMU Corpus Christi 8. Houston 9. Stephen F Austin 10. TCU 11. Tulane 12. Texas State 13. Texas Arlington 14. McNeese State 15. UTSA