Texas A&M
Roy Griak Invitational
Aggies face national caliber field at Roy Griak Invitational
Sep 24, 2014 | Cross Country
ST. PAUL, Minnesota – Texas A&M cross country ventures north this weekend to compete in the 29th annual Roy Griak Invitational hosted by the University of Minnesota on the Les Bolstad Golf Course. The field includes 10 nationally-ranked teams (seven women, three men) as the Aggies face competition from 30-plus schools representing seven different regions.
Flotrack.org will provide live coverage of the race with its premium online service. The men's race, which covers 8,000 meters, starts at 12:20 p.m. (CT) while the women's 6,000-meter race will begin at 1:10 p.m. This is the first weekend where results count towards at-large consideration into the NCAA Championship field.
“It's a great opportunity for us,” stated Texas A&M assistant coach Wendel McRaven. “It's still early in the season, but it's going to be a chance for us to really see where we stack up nationally.”
The nationally ranked women's teams in the field of 36 schools include Michigan State (3), Iowa State (9), Butler (11), Boise State (20), Vanderbilt (22), Minnesota (28), and North Carolina (30). In addition to the Aggie women, schools receiving votes in the top 30 national poll include Arizona State, Baylor, BYU, and Weber State. With 31 programs competing in the men's field the nationally ranked teams include Texas (24), Iowa State (27) and Colorado State (29).
Joining Texas A&M in the meet from the SEC are Kentucky, Missouri and Vanderbilt while teams from the South Central region include Baylor, Texas and UT-Arlington.
“You have to find that fine line in a field like this,” said McRaven. “It's a good, challenging course. You want to be in decent position, but you don't want to be foolish early in the race. We looked at previous results to see how teams that ran really well went out fairly conservatively as a team. You can do that on this course because it's a rolling course. It's really hard to get into a rhythm and particularly hard if you are fading.
“None of our athletes have been on this course, but I have some experience with the course and I've been passing that along that info. I've seen how teams have done when they ran intelligently on this course and how they fared when they didn't run intelligently.”
The Aggie men moved up to No. 3 in the South Central region rankings following a team victory last weekend in the Texas A&M Invitational over Lamar, who dropped to No. 4. A third-place finish for the Aggie women moved them from No. 3 in the South Central region to No. 4 behind Arkansas, SMU and Baylor.
Isaac Spencer, the individual winner at the Texas A&M Invitational over 6,000 meters, leads the Aggie squad competing at the Griak Invitational. Joining Spencer are fellow seniors Austin Geerts, Ryan Miller, and Colin Slattery. The Aggie squad also includes Julian Castellano, Christian Farris, Elliott Farris, Aaron Murray, Colin Stoeber, Ryan Teel and Austin Wells.
“On the men's side we have a group that down the road is going to be pretty good,” noted McRaven. “We will still be without Cameron Villarreal for one more week, and that will hurt us a bit. It's a chance for guys to step up. We shook off the rust and did some good things this past week, now it's time to rock and roll.”
Leading the A&M women are the trio who placed 1-2-3 on the 4,100-meter course at the A&M Invitational – seniors Hillary Montgomery and Grace Fletcher along with sophomore Karis Jochen. They were separated by nine seconds as each posted times under 14 minutes on the muddy course. The Aggie crew also includes Ashley Chamberlain, Laura Craig, Haley Deakins, Melanie Enriquez, Johanna Galloway, Amelia McElhinney, Kelsey Persyn and Katie Pia.
“On the women's side I think our top three runners can run with almost anybody in the country,” said McRaven. “Plus we need to see if we can get our number four and five runners to finish closer to our first three. Because we think we are going to have a strong 1-2-3 punch.”
NCAA South Central Region Rankings
Men
1. Arkansas
2. Texas
3. Texas A&M
4. Lamar
5. Stephen F. Austin
6. UT-Arlington
7. North Texas
8. McNeese State
9. Rice
10. Baylor
11. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
12. Houston
13. LSU
14. Central Arkansas
15. Texas State
Women
1. Arkansas
2. SMU
3. Baylor
4. Texas A&M
5. Texas
6. Lamar
7. Rice
8. UT-Arlington
9. North Texas
10. Arkansas State
11. UTSA
12. Central Arkansas
13. Stephen F. Austin
14. TCU
15. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi
Players Mentioned
