SOUTH BEND, Indiana - As Henry Lelei paced the Texas A&M men's cross country team with an eighth-place finish at the Notre Dame Invitational, the Aggie men placed seventh in team scoring and defeated four nationally ranked teams in the process.
Lelei completed the five-mile course in a time of 24 minutes, 16 seconds and had solid support from the next four Aggies to cross the finish line to produce the top-10 team finish.
"The men ran a solid race," said A&M assistant coach Wendel McRaven. "We had a few guys who were racing under the weather and that probably affected us a little bit. But still it was a very solid performance.
"I told the guys before the meet this will give us some indication where we are right now, not where we are going to be a month from now. This is a good way for us to run against some competition for the first time this season and see where we stack up."
The Notre Dame Invitational, which began in 1956 for the men and 1987 for the women, experienced some unique weather conditions as rain pelted the area on and off throughout the afternoon races.
Runners battled tough conditions all day, as temperatures dipped into the low 50's and winds blew at 20-30 mph, with top gusts reaching 40 mph and above. Due to severe rain in the area over the last week, the course was extremely wet, with soft spots throughout.
Men's team champion BYU, who placed three runners among the top 10 finishers, had the individual winner in Miles Batty, who covered the course in 23:59. Princeton's Donn Cabral ran 24:00 as runner-up with Florida State's Mike Fout third in 24:01. The places remained close as the rest of the top 10 finished, separated by just 16 seconds.
The Aggie men scored 261 points to better No. 21 New Mexico by four points. BYU, ranked 14th nationally, scored 46 points for the team victory over 93 turned in by 10th-ranked Florida State. There were a total of 26 teams in the field.
Princeton (No. 12) placed third with 138 points while Stanford (No. 3) finished fourth with 138 points. Two more unranked Pac-12 schools followed with Washington State (205) and UCLA (211) placing fifth and sixth, respectively.
Other nationally ranked squads finishing behind A&M were No. 23 Notre Dame, No. 25 Ohio State and No. 26 Eastern Kentucky. The Irish finished 11th with 321 points while the Buckeyes were 12th at 326 and Eastern Kentucky placed ninth with 267 points.
With 26 teams toeing the start line, Lelei managed to slide into the lead pack in the early stages of the race. Through the first quarter of the race Lelei was running in front of the lead pack.
"Henry's effort bodes well for him," said McRaven. "It helps show where he is at with his conditioning and fitness level. He's obviously pretty fit, but still has a ways to go to where he wants to be."
Even with a couple of changes Lelei shared the lead halfway through the race. As the lead group began to separate a bit, Lelei was sixth as the race reached the final stages.
"I'm very pleased since it's my first race on the NCAA level," said Lelei, the NJCAA champion last year. "So, it was good to place that high in this type of race. I've only raced the Kenyan from New Mexico, so most of the top 10 finishers were new to me. I was able to learn a few things to adjust my race plan for other races.
"Everyone else on the team did there part and we were able to have a good finish."
Kevin Burnett, running his first race of the season, performed very well with a time of 24:46 to place 28th. Then finishing as a tight pack to complete the team score for the A&M men were the trio of Will Barry (25:12), Isaac Spencer (25:12) and McLean O'Donnell (25:13) as they placed 74th, 75th, and 76th.
Another close pack of Aggies, amid a throng of runners, included Stephen Curry (25:18, 82nd), C.J. Brown (25:20, 88th) and James Hodges (25:23, 94th).
"That's going to be one of the keys for us all season," stated McRaven. "We have a group of guys who are very similar in ability. They need to roll together in races as much as possible while pushing each other."
The Texas A&M women were 20th amid a field of 28 teams, scoring 455 points. Florida State, nationally ranked seventh, won the team title with 54 points as No. 18 Arkansas tallied 114 as runner-up with No. 2 New Mexico claiming third with 164 points.
"The number one thing that happened to the women was they just buried at the start of the race," noted McRaven. "In a field as good as this one, you just can't give other teams such a huge gap and expect to make it up. There are just too many bodies to move through in a short amount of space.
"Based on what I've seen in training, the women are on the same level as our men. That just goes to show how a small thing like that at the start of a race can have a big effect on the outcome of your race. We have to use this as a learning experience to grow from."
Katherine Devlin led the Aggie women, placing 61st in a time of 17:53 on the 5,000-meter course. Hillary Montgomery was the second A&M runner to finish, clocking 18:08 for 88th.
Only eight seconds separated the rest of the Aggies scoring five. Itzel Cetina led the trio, placing 93rd in 18:12. Tara Upshaw followed in 18:15 for 99th while Haley Parsons ran 18:20 for 114th.
The rest of the A&M women's crew included Shawn Dalglish (18:37, 143rd), Grace Fletcher (18:47, 164th), Gabby Salazar (18:51, 172nd), and Colbea Harris (18:52, 173rd).
Sophie Blake ran in the junior varsity race, placing 19th with a time of 18:53 over the same distance. In the men's JV race the Aggie pair of Dylan Williams (26:16) and Jake Roberts (26:17) finished 16th and 18th respectively.
56th annual Notre Dame Invitational
Men (5 miles)
Teams: 1. BYU, 46; 2. Florida State, 93; 3. Princeton, 138; 4. Stanford, 202; 5. Washington State, 205; 6. UCLA, 211; 7. Texas A&M, 261; 8. New Mexico, 264; 9. Eastern Kentucky, 267; 10. Air Force, 296; 11. Notre Dame, 321; 12. Ohio State, 326; 13. Georgia, 340; 14. Penn State, 343; 15. Utah State, 365; 16. Butler, 370; 17. Weber State, 399; 18. UTEP, 429; 19. Missouri, 453; 20. Eastern Michigan, 501; 21. Indiana State, 525; 22. Clemson, 584; 23. Auburn, 705; 24. Santa Clara, 708; 25. Baylor, 752; 26. Fresno State, 790.
Women (5,000 meters)
Teams: 1. Florida State, 54; 2. Arkansas, 116; 3. New Mexico, 164; 4. Penn State, 188; 5. Notre Dame, 210; 6. BYU, 254; 7. Clemson, 265; 8. Princeton, 268; 9. Missouri, 286; 10. Weber State, 301; 11. Stony Brook, 307; 12. Toledo, 351; 13. Ohio State, 366; 14. tie, James Madison & Rice, 390; 16. SMU, 398; 17. Washington State, 420; 18. Georgia, 421; 19. Baylor, 445; 20. Texas A&M, 455; 21. Air Force, 535; 22. Butler, 548; 23. UCLA 625; 24. UAB, 629; 25. UTEP, 638; 26. Fresno State, 703; 27. Utah State, 752; 28. Auburn, 762.