Nov. 11, 2010
WACO - Texas A&M cross country will enter the South Central region meet on Saturday with a crew of eight runners each for its men's and women's squads. Start times on the Cottonwood Creek golf course are 10 a.m. for the women's 6,000-meter race and 11 a.m. for the men's 10,000-meter event.
Katherine Devlin, who has led the A&M women in each meet this season, was the top Aggie at last year's region meet when she placed 17th with a time of 21:35.4 on the same golf course.
The Aggie men, who placed three seniors among the top 20 finishers a year ago and had Joe Sauvageau qualify for the national championship race, will be led by Kevin Burnett, A&M's top returner from last season's region meet. At the 2009 regional Burnett clocked 32:09.5 over 10,000 meters to place 25th overall, and was the fourth Aggie finisher.
Joining Devlin on the A&M women's team in the South Central region meet will be MacLean O'Donnell, Nathan Parker and Jimmy Welin competing.
Texas A&M enters the South Central region meet ranked fourth in the women's poll and seventh in the men's poll. The top three women's teams are Texas, ranked No. 25 nationally, Arkansas and Rice. Topping the men's field are Arkansas, ranked No. 11 nationally, Texas and Lamar.
Fourth in the team scoring at the South Central region meet in 2009, the highest A&M men's finish in the regional occurred with a team title in 2008. The Aggies have also been third twice in the past five seasons. Texas A&M women, who were ninth last season, finished as high as third in 2006.
Up for grabs during the region meet are team and individual bids for the NCAA Championships held on Monday, Nov. 22. The top two teams in each race automatically qualify for the national meet while the top four individuals not on a qualifying team also advance to Terre Haute, Indiana for the NCAA Championship races.
Among the nine regions being contested this weekend, the top two teams from each region automatically qualify to produce 18 teams for the national field. With a field size of 31 teams, the remaining 13 at-large team selections are made by an NCAA committee based on season performances.
A total of 36 individual runners automatically advance among the top four runners in each of the nine regions not on a qualifying team. Then two individual at-large selections are made by the committee.
Texas A&M has had at least one individual qualify for the NCAA Championship race in each of the past five years while the men's team also advanced in 2008.