Tara Upshaw places 10th in Region to qualify for NCAA Championship

Saturday, November 13

Waco, Texas

10:00 AM

Texas A&M

NCAA South Central Regional

Nov 13, 2010 | Track and Field

By: Texas A&M Athletics

Nov. 13, 2010

South Central Results

WACO - Texas A&M sophomore Tara Upshaw placed 10th at the South Central Region cross country meet on Saturday and earned an automatic qualifying position into the NCAA Championship field.

Running a time of 20 minutes, 57.2 seconds, on the 6,000-meter course at the Cottonwood Creek golf course, Upshaw led the Aggies to a fifth-place team finish as they scored 140 points.

This marks the sixth consecutive year Texas A&M has produced an individual qualifier to the NCAA Championship field in cross country. Joe Sauvageau qualified in 2009 while Christina Munoz (2007 and 2008) and Elizabeth Slaughter (2008) advanced the two previous seasons.

Kevin Burnett paced the Aggie men's effort with a 15th-place finish, covering a 10,000-meter distance in 30:50.5. Texas A&M scored 166 points in placing fifth.

Texas (46) and Rice (71) were the top two schools in the women's field and they each earned automatic team qualification into the national meet. The top five teams included Arkansas (98), Baylor (102) and the Aggies (139).

"I'm extremely pleased with the women's team effort today," said Texas A&M head coach Pat Henry. "I think our ladies are figuring out that they can compete with whoever they want to compete with. We just need everyone to have a great day on the same day."

Among runners not affiliated with those two teams Upshaw nabbed the fourth and final position to earn an automatic individual berth into the NCAA Championships.

"Running with the team every day this fall I felt like I needed to pay them back," stated Upshaw. "So, it's a good feeling for me to qualify for the NCAAs and contribute to the team.

"It was unusual for me to feel as good as I did running today. There was a good chill in the air and it just felt right for me. Even looking ahead to the national meet, I just want to stay relaxed and see what happens. I'm very happy to be going."

Completing the course just behind Upshaw was sophomore teammate Natosha Rogers, who finished 11th in 21:03.9. Rogers will be among a group of runners considered for two of the individual at-large selections to the NCAA Championships, which take place on Nov. 22 in Terre Haute, Indiana.

"At the finish a whole group of girls were trying to pass me and I did everything I could not to let that happen," recalled Rogers, who will find out on Monday if she advances to the NCAA meet. "Now I'm probably going to go crazy waiting to hear if I made it into the NCAA meet."

Upshaw and Rogers were both running at a 3:30 place in the opening 1,000 meters. By the 5,000 mark Upshaw was 12 seconds ahead of Rogers, 17:36 to 17:48.

Rogers cut that deficit to her teammate in half in the final 1,000 as her surge to the finish line placed her ahead of SMU's Mary Alenbratt, who was credited with the same time as Rogers in 21:03.9, and SFA's Stephanie Ganter (21:05.9).

"For Upshaw to place 10th in a field of 125 runners is a tremendous effort," Henry said. "Then Rogers is 11th right behind Upshaw. Those are two good races by those young ladies."

Katherine Devlin, among the leaders early on in the race, fell back among the pack in the later stages and finished as the third Aggie in 28th place, running a time of 21:24.9.

"Devlin was a little bit off today, she would be the first one to tell you that," said Henry. "Our top three ran well today, we just need our fourth and fifth runners to be a big contributor and supply us with some depth."

As the lead women's group began to spread out three contenders for the individual title became evident in Arkansas' Miranda Walker, Mia Behm of Texas and Rice's Nicole Mericle. In the final sprint to the finish Mericle had the edge and won in 20:16.3 with Behm (20:20.5) taking second and Walker (20:27.9) third.

For the Aggies Amanda Jenkins clocked 21:39.6 to place 39th and Colbea Harris completed A&M's team score as the fifth runner, finishing 56th in 22:04.2. Kasey McNorton followed Harris, placing 57th with a 22:05.5 while Itzel Cetina finished 71st in 22:22.4.

Arkansas (30) claimed the men's team title with Texas (66) runner-up. Those two squads will have the NCAA Championship berth from the South Central region. The rest of the top five included Lamar (102), Baylor (151) and the Aggies (166).

"On the men's side we had a bit of a different race than the women," Henry noted. "We have a couple of guys who stick it up in there and really get after it. However, we have a couple of other runners who we depend on who are not quite getting it done yet.

"We are young, but we have the personnel to do well. We just need to become more competitive throughout the group."

Burnett had a strong start in the men's race and led the field through 6,000 meters, after crossing the 5,000 mark in 15:40. In the latter stages, though a trio of Arkansas runners pulled away along with TCU's Festus Kigen.

During the final uphill finish Kigen moved from fourth to first, passing the three Razorbacks, and won the race in 30:11.1. Arkansas claimed places 2-3-4 with Solomon Haile (30:13.2), Dorian Ulrey (30:13.3) and Eric Fernandez (30:15.5).

Among the Aggie crew MacLean O'Donnell followed in 35th with a time of 31:25.9. Then Stephen Curry and Will Barry finished within five places of each other to complete A&M's scoring five. Curry ran 31:41.2 to place 47th while Barry clocked 31:52.4 for 52nd.

Nathan Parker finished sixth for the Aggies, running 32:04.6 to place 59th while Ryan Miller was 80th with a 32:52.1.

SOUTH CENTRAL REGION

Waco, Texas

Men's Teams:

1. Arkansas 30

2. Texas 66

3. Lamar 102

4. Baylor 151

5. Texas A&M 166

6. McNeese State 173

7. Arkansas-Little Rock 201

8. Stephen F. Austin 215