Texas A&M
NCAA Championships (indiv.)
Rogers and Upshaw complete cross country season with national race
Nov 22, 2010 | Cross Country
Nov. 22, 2010
TERRE HAUTE, INDIANA - In the final meet of the collegiate cross country season Texas A&M sophomores Natosha Rogers and Tara Upshaw turned in solid efforts during the NCAA Championship race held on Monday.
Rogers completed the 6,000-meter looping course on the LaVern Gibson Championship Course in a time of 21 minutes, 53.1 seconds to place 164th while Upshaw recorded a time of 22:03.9 to finish 178th among a field of 253 finishers. Halfway through the race, Upshaw recorded a split of 10:28 at the 3,000-meter mark with Rogers coming through at 10:31.
The experience gained from racing in the NCAA Championship field by the Aggie tandem should bode well for a young A&M squad that could contend for team qualification next season.
A second opportunity to run at the NCAA meet usually results in an improved performance. Back in 2007, Aggie entrant Christina Munoz qualified for the national meet as a sophomore and placed 183rd (22:14.1). Then she improved to 45th place as a junior in 2008 with a 20:45.9 clocking.
Villanova women defended their team title as their lead runner, Sheila Reid, claimed the individual title with a 20:06.9 winning time. Villanova totaled 120 points while Florida State finished second in team scoring with 154 and Texas Tech placed third with 165 points.
Other Big 12 schools in the women's field included Colorado (314) in sixth place, Iowa State (341) in eighth, Oklahoma State (416) in 17th, Texas (441) in 20th, and Kansas State (547) in 25th.
On the men's side Oklahoma State repeated its national team title with 73 points as Florida State placed second with 193 and Wisconsin finished third with 223 points. Liberty's Samuel Chelanga defended his individual title with a 29:22.2 victory on the 10,000-meter course.
Oklahoma scored 281 points to place fifth and the Big 12 was also represented by Colorado (366) in 15th and Texas (595) in 26th.
With the top 40 finishers in the race earning All-America honors, the Big 12 had eight men and eight women achieve that feat during Monday's race.
