Texas A&M
Aggieland Open
Texas A&M women second, men third at Aggieland Open
Oct 07, 2016 | Cross Country
COLLEGE STATION – Laura Craig and Juan Uribe led Texas A&M efforts during the Aggieland Open held Friday afternoon on the Dale Watts cross country course as the Texas A&M women placed second in team scoring while the Aggie men were third.
Craig claimed fourth among the collegiate finishers in the women's 5,000-meter race and placed eighth overall with a time of 18:33.1 in a field of 61 runners. Uribe clocked 25:55.4 on the men's 8,000-meter course to place seventh among a field of 50 runners.
"Overall it was a solid performance," noted Texas A&M assistant coach Wendel McRaven. "We were running our B teams out here, but you still want to compete well. I saw some good things out of both races and would like to have won both competitions.
"The women finished second with a solid performance and it was our B team versus other schools A teams. Laura Craig did a nice job leading the team. Juan Uribe bounced back after not traveling last weekend, and is heading in the right direction. On the men's side we didn't run very many guys, so we didn't have the depth we usually have."
Stephen F. Austin totaled 25 points to capture the women's team title over the 46 points produced by Texas A&M. Rounding out the women's teams were Sam Houston State (60), Baylor (111), Louisiana Tech (143) and Prairie View (165).
The Lumberjack men also claimed top team honors with 33 points and were led by individual winner Josh Torres (24:49.1), who bettered the field by 12 seconds. Sam Houston State finished second with 47 points as the Aggies were third with 69 points. Rounding out the men's field were Louisiana Tech (95), Prairie View (125) and Texas Southern (150).
Four unattached runners were the first four finishers in the women's race with Alexandria Hackett claiming the victory in 17:03.9. The top collegiate runner in the field was Ana Moreno of Sam Houston State (18:27.4).
Behind the leading effort of Craig the Aggies had four runners finish in places 13-14-15-16 to produce the team tally with scoring places of 9-10-11-12. Ashton Hutcherson led the foursome with a time of 19:04.0 and was followed by Amelia McElhinney (19:12.5), Kaitlin Tanner (19:31.3) and Shelby McNeel (19:32.8).
"This was a good confidence booster and I'm grateful being out here one more time with my teammates," said Craig. "We motivate each other and I just love coming out here to run with them.
"It felt good being up in front of the field. My last race at Notre Dame included men in the same race. I just tried to be more controlled in this race during the beginning and work my way up over the rest of the race."
Sarah Odneal led the next batch of five Texas A&M runners, placing 18th (19:38.4), with Hannah Campbell (19:49.0), Emily Willingham (19:50.5), Olivia Arriaza (19:57.7) and Lauren Fontana (20:09.8) finishing in places 19-21-22-23 overall.
As Uribe finished seventh in the men's race he was followed by teammate Eli Canal, who ran 26:04.0 in ninth place. Then Aaron Murray placed 17th (26:47.4) with Logan Hendrix in 19th (26:54.9) and Julian Castellano finishing 21th (27:08.0).
"I really appreciate that we have this meet since it gives me another chance to get back into this cross country season," stated Uribe. "We started out a bit conservative and I may have been too conservative. I finished fine and overall it was a decent race. It wasn't my best race, but I think we are getting somewhere with it."
Also running for the Aggies in the women's race were Lizette Chapa (26th – 20:18.5), Audrey Spitz (27th – 20:23.1), Erica Moorhead (34th – 20:53.1), Emily Brandy (36th – 21:03.4) and Valarie Bradley (42nd – 21:34.1).
Players Mentioned
