Oct. 26, 2010
Big 12 Championships - A&M Notes
STILLWATER, Okla. - Texas A&M enters the postseason phase of the cross country season with a trip to the Big 12 Championships, which will be held on Saturday, Oct. 30, on the Oklahoma State campus. The Big 12 Championship field will include five women's teams and four men's teams ranked among the nation's top 30. Oklahoma State men and Texas Tech women are two-time defending conference champions.
Race time is 10 a.m. for the women's 6,000-meter race while the men's 8,000-meter race begins at 11 a.m. at the Oklahoma State Cross Country course. The top 15 finishers in each race earn All-Big 12 recognition.
Texas A&M men remained No. 3 in the poll for the South Central Region and the Aggie women improved to No. 4 from its previous fifth-place position.
"Coach Dan Waters is excited about the group we are taking to the Big 12 Championships," A&M head coach Pat Henry said. "If everybody is healthy and ready to go I think there is a great opportunity for this team to be successful. This is the time for everybody to be on the same page and be ready to go at this type of championship. That is the challenge."
The OSU Cowboys, also the defending national champions, are currently ranked No. 2 in the nation, just one point behind Stanford with each program receiving six first-place votes. Within the Big 12, the Cowboys are followed by No. 5 Oklahoma, No. 9 Colorado and No. 30 Texas.
Texas Tech headlines the women's field with a No. 4 ranking followed by No. 7 Colorado, No. 11 Iowa State, No. 15 Texas and No. 27 Oklahoma State.
Running on the Aggie men's squad will be C.J. Brown, Henrik Ingebrigtsen, MacLean O'Donnell, Ryan Snapp and Jimmy Welin.
Competing for the Texas A&M women are Itzel Cetina, Katherine Devlin, Colbea Harris, Amanda Jenkins, Kasey McNorton, Haley Parsons, Natosha Rogers, Gabby Salazar, and Tara Upshaw.
The Aggie squads include only one senior, McNorton, and four juniors - Barry, Burnett, Snapp and Upshaw - among a total of 18 competitors.
Devlin, who placed fourth in the Big 12 Outdoor 10,000 meters last spring, has led the A&M women in each of the four meets they have contested this season and placed among the top 10 individuals in three of those meets. The Aggie women won the team title at the Alabama Crimson Classic by four points over the host school and recently placed third in the Chile Pepper Festival at Arkansas.
Individually, Devlin finished third (17:26) in the Crimson Classic and fifth (16:55) at the Chile Pepper over 5,000 meters. On a 6,000-meter course at Wisconsin, Devlin recorded a time of 20:45 and placed 20th in a field that included five nationally ranked teams.
"Katherine Devlin continues to get better and better," said Henry. "She's one of those young ladies who are a diamond in the rough. She has done really well this season and I anticipate her doing very well at this meet."
For the A&M men, three different runners have paced the squad during the course of the season. Early on it was MacLean O'Donnell leading the crew at the New Mexico Lobo Invitational and Crimson Classic, as he placed fifth (25:17) and 11th (25:11), respectively, among a field of international runners. Then Kevin Burnett was the first Aggie finisher at the Wisconsin Invitational, placing 52nd (24:29) among a field of eight nationally ranked schools.
"Kevin Burnett has been a pretty stable guy," noted Henry. "I think he has a big race in him. Coach Waters says that Burnett trains at a level where he can produce a big race and we hope this is the time where he puts it all together."
The last race for the Aggie men, at the Chile Pepper Festival, marked the debut for Henrik Ingebrigtsen, who recorded a time of 30:01 to place 16th over the 10,000-meter course and led the A&M squad to a fifth-place team finish. Ingebrigtsen, from Norway, qualified for the World Junior Championships and European Championships in the 1,500 this past summer.
The Arkansas meet marked the first time this season that A&M's top three runners - Burnett, Ingebrigtsen and O'Donnell - competed together in the same race. They will likely form the nucleus of the Aggies scoring five at the Big 12 Championships while Barry, Welin, Parker and Snapp contend for a top five finish among the A&M squad.
Rogers has been a steady No. 2 runner for the Aggie women with a pair of top 10 finishes of her own. She finished eighth (17:46) at New Mexico and seventh (17:35) in Alabama and then clocked 21:12 over 6,000 meters to place 47th at Wisconsin.
Cetina and Jenkins have consistently finished third and fourth on the team. Upshaw, who had her first race of the season at Arkansas, will provide quality depth to the A&M crew while a trio of newcomers - Parsons, Harris and Salazar - will challenge for a scoring position.
Following the conference championship meet, the Aggies will contest the South Central Regional, which serves as the qualifying meet for the NCAA Championships, on Saturday, Nov. 13, in Waco.
ACADEMIC All-Big 12 Cross Country
Leading up to the Big 12 Championships this weekend, the conference office announced its Academic All-Big 12 team. Eleven Aggies were named with seven A&M athletes among the first-team selections.
Earning first-team academic honors were C.J. Brown, Katherine Devlin, Natosha Rogers and Jimmy Welin.
First team honors are awarded to athletes who have achieved a grade point average of 3.20 and participated in 60 percent of the team's scheduled contests. Also eligible for the honor are senior athletes who have participated in the sport a minimum of two years and met all criteria except percent of participation. Second team honors are earned by athletes who have achieved a grade point average of 3.00.