Impressive 7th place peformance for Aggie men at Notre Dame Invitational

Friday, October 2

South Bend, Ind.

1:00 PM

Texas A&M

Notre Dame Invitational

Oct 02, 2015 | Cross Country

Photo Gallery

SOUTH BEND, Indiana - Texas A&M recorded an impressive seventh-place team finish in the men's race during the 60^th edition of the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational held Friday on the Burke Memorial Golf course while the Aggie women placed 16^th.

Cameron Villarreal led the A&M men as he covered the five mile course in a time of 23 minutes, 58.0 seconds to place seventh among a field of 169. Karis Jochen paced the women's effort in finishing 15^th with a time of 16:55.0 on the 5,000-meter course amid a field of 174.

"The men really ran well," stated Texas A&M assistant coach Wendel McRaven. "After last week I was a little bit concerned since I didn't know where we were on the men's side. They put together a good race. To get seventh in this race is going to give them some confidence. I'm very pleased.

"This is the 60^th year of this Invitational and I feel anytime you're in the top 10 then you're a legitimate national-level type team. Obviously, we want to get better and eventually beat some of the teams that finished ahead of us today. Missouri beat us by 10 points on our home course a week ago and we turned the tables and beat them by nearly 200 points today."

Villarreal was just nine seconds behind the winning time of 23:49.1 set by UTEP's Anthony Rotich. Purdue's Matt McClintock squeezed ahead of another UTEP runner, Jonah Koech, for second place as both were timed in 23:49.5.

Opening with a 4:46.65 through the first mile had Villarreal in 58^th place. By the 4km split he moved up to 30^th with a 12:06.34 split. Then a strong push to the finish moved Villarreal into the top 10 as he picked off runners ahead of him in the final stages of the race.

"It was a great day for the team," said Villarreal. "It's definitely the best team race we've had in a while. We worked together in our group well and that's been our focus this season. We did really well in a race with great competition. It's good to come here and beat some teams we haven't beaten in the past.

"Personally to finish seventh at this meet is a huge blessing and I'm thankful for that. At about three miles there is a bit of break. Before the race Coach McRaven told us to get nasty in last two miles for your team. I thought about that and knew if we were going to do well as a team I needed to be among the top 10. So when I saw the break I was able move up to get to the back of the lead pack. Then with my last surge to the finish I was able to catch a few more people."

UTEP won the men's team title with 89 points over No. 27 North Carolina State (97 points), No. 26 Colorado State (126) and No. 23 Southern Utah (134). The Miners, who received votes in the national top 30 poll, bettered a field that included five nationally-ranked squads.

Rounding out the top 10 teams were Purdue (169), Eastern Michigan (190), Texas A&M (218), Navy (225), No. 17 New Mexico (230) and host Notre Dame (239). Arizona State, ranked No. 18, finished 19^th (473).

Finishing the course in 24:25.6 placed Austin Wells 32^nd while teammates followed in 43^rd place with Alex Riba clocking 24:36.5 and Christian Farris was 60^th with a 24:46.7. Ryan Teel claimed the fifth position among the Aggie crew in placing 77^th with a time of 24:54.2.

Pack running aided the A&M effort in team scoring as Villarreal had company from Wells (4:46.68, 12:06.09) and Riba (4:46.35, 12:07.53) for a majority of the race.

"We're still not perfect, I feel that Cameron, Austin and Alex can stay together even longer in the race, but they did a really nice job," noted McRaven. "We got out aggressively, which was important on this course, and they hung on pretty well."

Also racing for the A&M men were Juan Uribe (122^nd, 25:22.8), Colin Stoeber (123^rd, 25:24.1), Jacob Perry (155^th, 26:16.6), and Eli Canal (166^th, 27:07.8). An aggressive start had Uribe rubbing shoulders with the lead pack in third place through the first mile as he split 4:44.40.

The women's team finish held to form among the nationally ranked teams as No. 1 New Mexico cruised with a winning tally of 29 points. They finished ahead of No. 14 North Carolina State (74), No. 20 Notre Dame (143) and No. 22 Vanderbilt (150). The Aggie women totaled 426 points in placing 16^th.

"We were a little off on the women's side today," said McRaven. "Based on how they performed last week I expected the women to have a performance like the men turned in today. I think the men learned a little bit from watching the women's race and noticed how you need to get out at the start to have a chance of competing.

"Karis did a good job of being in that front pack, but she was a little flat today. Over the last mile she was dropped from that lead pack of runners. It's a good learning experience for her. The rest of the team never got themselves up far enough to get into the race. It's only a 5k for the women, so with it being a short race you're not going to be able to make up much ground later in the race."

Ryen Frazier of NC State claimed the women's individual title in 16:22.9 with a four second gap to Courtney Frerichs of New Mexico (16:27.0) and five seconds to Molly Seidel of Notre Dame (16:28.3). New Mexico placed four runners among the top six finishers and its fifth runner placed 12^th.

Jochen had an evenly run race in terms of her place among the field as she was 12^th at the first mile (5:25.56) and at 4km (13:28.72).

"As an individual I wasn't very happy with 15^th place," noted Jochen. "This will keep me on a focused mindset. This isn't where I want to be, but it gives me something to work on."

The next pair of finishers for A&M behind Jochen's leading effort included Arin Rice, who ran 17:49.1 to place 86^th, and Haley Deakins, who posted a 17:53.3 to finish 91^st. Kelsey Persyn was the fourth Aggie to finish, running 18:19.4 to place 130^th, as Laura Craig wrapped up the A&M scoring five in placing 143^rd with a time of 18:29.3.

Katie Pia (144^th, 18:30.5), Devin Norton (146^th, 18:34.0) and Hannah Campbell (154^th, 18:46.2) were the next trio of Aggies to complete the race. Kelsie Warren did not finish.

In an open race over 5,000 meters the A&M pair of Emily Willingham (18:19.6) and Kaitlin Tanner (18:36.1) placed 13^th and 26^th in a field of 108 runners.

Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational - South Bend, Indiana

Team Scores (national ranking included)
Men: 1. UTEP 89; 2. North Carolina St. (No. 27) 97; 3. Colorado St. (No. 26) 126; 4. Southern Utah (No. 23) 134; 5. Purdue 169; 6. Eastern Michigan 190; 7. Texas A&M 218; 8. Navy 225; 9. New Mexico (No. 17) 230; 10. Notre Dame 239; 11. Penn 243; 12. Florida 278; 13. IUPUI 335; 14. Bradley 379; 15. Indiana St. 391; 16. Missouri 405; 17. UC Santa Barbara 433; 18. Illinois St. 434; 19. Arizona St. (No. 18) 473; 20. Iowa 481.

Women: 1. New Mexico (No. 1) 29; 2. North Carolina St. (No. 14) 74; 3. Notre Dame (No. 20) 143; 4. Vanderbilt (No. 22) 150; 5. Utah 164; 6. Purdue 201; 7. Arizona St. 213; 8. Colorado St. 258; 9. Bradley 272; 10. Penn 284; 11. Eastern Michigan 342; 12. Florida 358; 13. SMU 366; 14. Clemson 380; 15. Missouri 386; 16. Texas A&M 426; 17. Idaho St. 461; 18. Northwestern 469; 19. Iowa 487; 20. Illinois St. 490; 21. UTEP 524.