Aggies seek NCAA Championship berths, host South Central Regional

Friday, November 13

College Station

10:00 AM

Texas A&M

NCAA South Central Regional

Nov 10, 2015 | Cross Country

COLLEGE STATION – As Texas A&M serves as host to the NCAA South Central regional meet on Friday the Aggies will be pursuing team and individual berths into the NCAA Cross Country Championships. The region meet begins at 10 a.m. with the women's 6,000-meter race followed by a 10,000-meter race for the men at 11 a.m. on the Dale Watts course.

Teams in the region meet are limited to seven runners of which the top five will compute a team score. The top two teams earn an automatic berth into the national championship field along with the top four individuals not associated with a qualifying team. The NCAA Championships will be held on Saturday, November 21, in Louisville, Kentucky.

"We're excited from having placed second in the SEC and we have great momentum," Texas A&M assistant coach Wendel McRaven said. "We've been running better and better each week. We're obviously going into the meet with the idea of finishing in one of the top two spots. The competition is going to be tough."

The men's battle will likely be between No. 8 Arkansas, who has won the past two South Central team titles, along with Texas A&M and Texas, who both received votes in the national rankings this past week. The Razorbacks recently claimed the SEC championship with the Aggies posting a runner-up finish while the Longhorns placed third in the Big 12.

"We've seen Arkansas in the SEC and they're a legitimate top 10 team at nationals," noted McRaven. "We also competed against Texas earlier in the season when they beat us pretty solidly on our home course. That provided some motivation to our guys after that meet and we've been significantly better since then. The guys have done a great job of really focusing on what's important."

Arkansas, who has captured the past four regional team championships, headlines the women's field as the No. 3 nationally-ranked Razorbacks return the top individual in Dominique Scott, who won the 2014 South Central title and was runner-up in 2013. Scott recently won her third consecutive SEC individual title which coincided with the Razorbacks third consecutive conference team championship.

"This region is wide open on the women's side behind nationally-ranked Arkansas," said McRaven. "Hopefully we're good enough to be a top five team, and we might even be better than that. We'll find out on Friday.

"I really want to see our women's team step it up. They've shown some great courage this season and I'm hoping to see them continue to get better and make some noise at the regional meet. We're not very far away from being a really good team and they're starting to set that precedent for it right now."

SMU, who received votes in the national rankings, and Rice are expected to contend for the other women's automatic NCAA team berth. They both return individuals who placed among the top five a year ago.

Agnes Sjostrom, who finished third in the 2014 race, was fifth among the Mustang squad as they placed second in the American Athletic Conference while Cali Roper, fifth in the region last season, paced the Owls to a Conference USA team title as she won the individual crown.

This marks the first time since 2001 that Texas A&M has hosted the NCAA South Central regional. In 2011 the Aggie men finished second in the regional and placed 18th in the NCAA Championships while the 2008 A&M crew won the South Central title and placed 30th in the NCAA meet.

"We're excited about this opportunity and excited to have it at home," stated McRaven. "We feel like being at home is a little bit of an advantage since we know the course well, with its twists and turns. Also, with the distance moving up to 10,000 meters in the men's race it's a positive for us. We train with that distance in mind all year long. We're a team that tends to close pretty well over the last part of a race, so extending the race a little longer only helps us."

In the SEC Championships the A&M men had three runners earn second team All-SEC as they placed among the top 15 finishers. Cameron Villarreal led the trio in placing eighth while Alex Riba and Austin Wells finished 13th and 14th amid the 8,000-meter race on the Watts course.

Last year's region meet had Wells finishing third among the Aggie crew and 28th in the field as they raced over a 10k distance. Wells is the top returner from the 2014 regional for the Aggies and he placed 53rd as freshman. Villarreal finished 50th as the fifth A&M runner a year ago and was 59th as a freshman.

The A&M women finished sixth in the region a year ago after three consecutive third-place finishes in the regional. The Aggies last won the South Central women's team crown in 2000 and went on to place 18th in the NCAA Championships.

Karis Jochen, who recently earned first-team All-SEC honors with a fifth-place effort, placed 10th in the regional last year after finishing 22nd as a freshman in 2013. Jochen, seeking one of the four individual NCAA automatic berths, was fifth among individuals contending for the automatic berths a year ago. She placed behind A&M teammates Hillary Montgomery and Grace Fletcher, who both went on to claim All-America honors with a top 40 finish in the NCAA Championship race.

"Karis is motivated, she's fired up and excited about following in the footsteps of two great teammates who set the bar for her," noted McRaven. ""Now it's her turn. If she runs her race at the regional meet, then she'll be booking her ticket to Louisville.

"There's a chance we may not run Arin Rice and she would be the second runner among our top five who we will be missing. It'll be a test for the women to see if they can step up and race well without a couple of missing pieces."

Other Aggies who competed in the regional meet last season include Christian Farris and Ryan Teel in the men's race along with Haley Deakins, Katie Pia and Laura Craig in the women's race.

Seven runners for A&M will be selected among an entry squad that also consists of Eli Canal, Elliott Farris, Aaron Murray, Jacob Perry, Colin Stoeber, and Juan Uribe. The women's squad also includes Hannah Campbell, Kelsey Persyn, Arin Rice, Kaitlin Tanner, Katie Watson and Emily Willingham.

In the men's field the top individual returner is Houston's Brian Barraza, who placed fourth a year ago after finishing 28th as a freshman. Barraza recently had a fourth-place effort in the American Athletic Conference and won the Texas A&M Invitational on this course in September over an 8,000m distance.

Contenders for one of the four individual automatic NCAA qualifying positions includes SFA's Charles Mathenge and Troy Taylor of North Texas, who finished seventh and eighth a year ago, along with Lamar freshman Iliass Aouani.

In the Southland Conference meet Aouani defeated Mathenge for the individual title. Earlier in the season Mathenge finished runner-up to Barraza in the Texas A&M Invitational while Aouani and Taylor were fourth and fifth.

On the women's side Baylor's Maggie Montoya returns from placing 12th in the 2014 region meet and she recently finished fifth in the Big 12. Another potential challenger is Arkansas-Little Rock freshman Noora Wallenius, who won the Sun Belt title.