Nov. 12, 2009
WACO - Texas A&M returns to the Cottonwood Creek golf course as defending champions of the men's team title in the South Central Region on Saturday led by a senior trio consisting of Mitch Bible, Andrew Montes and Joe Sauvageau.
The top two teams at each of the nine region meets held this weekend will secure an automatic berth into the NCAA Championship meet while the top four individual finishers not on an advancing team qualify as well. Start time for the men's 10,000-meter race is 10 a.m. at the South Central Region with the women covering a 6,000-meter course at 11 a.m.
Prior to their team title in 2008, the Aggie men have been runner-up at the region meet three times - 1982, 1999 and 2003 - and finished third in 2008. Texas A&M is currently ranked No. 3 in the South Central Region.
The Razorbacks, ranked No. 22 nationally, enter the meet as the No. 1 team in the region and they bettered A&M earlier this season at the Wisconsin Invitational, placing fourth to the Aggies seventh. Texas A&M should be in contention with Texas, ranked No. 2 in the region, and Lamar, in the No. 4 position, for an automatic berth into the national meet.
Earning another team berth into the NCAA Championships from the region meet would mark just the second time Texas A&M has qualified in consecutive seasons. Previous team qualifying into the NCAA Championships for the Aggie men occurred in 1961, 1982, 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2008.
Last year the Aggie men snapped an 18-year winning streak by Arkansas at the regional meet and earned Texas A&M's sixth visit to the NCAA Championships as a team and its first visit as a full squad in five years. It was just the second time in the span of 30 years for the Razorbacks to be defeated at regionals as A&M totaled 39 points to Arkansas' 44.
Joining the A&M senior trio in the men's race are Graham Northcutt and Jimmy Welin. The Aggie women head into the meet with a squad consisting of Kirsten Brown, Lexi Crommett, Kristen Stone and Tara Upshaw.
Sauvageau and Bible return as the top two finishers for the Aggies from last year's contest. Sauvageau finished 12th on the 10,000-meter course while Bible was 15th. The pair ran within a second of each other with times of 31:18 and 31:19, respectively.
This season Montes has led the Aggies in two meets - Virginia Invitational and Big 12 Championships - while Sauvageau led the team at Wisconsin. Bible has been A&M's second finisher twice, at Wisconsin and Big 12.
Texas A&M women are regionally ranked No. 6 heading into the South Central Region for the second consecutive year. Two Aggie women qualified individually for the NCAA Championships in last year's race.
This will be the third region meet for Brown, who finished sixth on the A&M crew as a freshman in 2007 and fifth among the Aggies last season. McNorton also will have a third appearance at the South Central Region after finishing as the third A&M runner in 2008. An injury prevented her from finishing the course in 2007.
The remaining six members of the women's squad will be making their first appearance at a region meet.