Oct. 14, 2009
Charlottesville, Va. - In its final meet prior to the conference meet at the end of the month, Texas A&M cross country will travel to Virginia for a Friday afternoon Invitational meet against another solid field of ranked schools.
The field of teams set to compete on the Panorama Farms course includes host Virginia, Tennessee, Villanova, Duke, Maryland, Richmond, North Carolina and American.
No. 2 Villanova tops the women's field with Virginia at No. 10 and Duke at No. 14. In the men's national rankings the Cavaliers of Virginia are the highest ranked team in the meet at No. 15. Villanova is currently No. 24 while Duke is No. 26.
The women's race, set to start at 3 p.m. (CST), will cover 6,000 meters while the men's race, set for a 3:45 p.m. start, will span an 8,000-meter distance.
The Aggie men are ranked second to Arkansas in the South Central Region. Tennessee is ranked third in the South, while Maryland and American are eighth and 12th in the Mid-Atlantic. Richmond is seventh in the Southeast.
Region rankings among the women's field has Texas A&M sixth in the South Central Region. North Carolina ranks fourth in the Southeast with Richmond 13th. Tennessee is fifth in the South, and Maryland ranks seventh in the Mid-Atlantic.
Texas A&M will travel with a crew of 10 men, led by Joe Sauvageau and Mitch Bible. The senior pair led the Aggies two weeks again during a seventh-place team finish at Wisconsin. The rest of the group will include C.J. Brown, Andrew Montes, Graham Northcutt, and Jimmy Welin.
For the A&M women, the squad competing includes Christina Munoz, the top Aggie finisher in Wisconsin, along with Sarah Balfour, Kirsten Brown, Itzel Cetina, Katherine Devlin, Amanda Jenkins, Natosha Rogers and Tara Upshaw.
Following the Virginia Invitational, the Aggies will compete in the Big 12 Championships on Oct. 31 in Columbia, Missouri.