Aggie men claim team victory, Karis Jochen defends her title at Texas A&M Invitational

Saturday, September 24

College Station

8:15 AM

Texas A&M

Texas A&M Invitational

Sep 24, 2016 | Cross Country

Men's results Women's results High School boys results High School girls results JV boys results JV girls results

COLLEGE STATION – A team victory for the Aggie men combined with an individual win for Karia Jochen in the women's race highlighted performances during the Texas A&M Invitational held on the Dale Watts Cross Country course Saturday morning.

Jochen, a senior All-American, defended her title in the meet from a year ago, cruising through the 6,000-meter course in a time of 20 minutes, 14.2 seconds. Two seconds back as runner-up was Abigail Cartwright of Rice (20:16.6) while Kentucky's Katie Kunc (20:18.5) finished third.

"This was an exciting race for the Aggies today," noted Jochen. "Having this home course is such a special thing for our team. Getting one more race on this home course as an Aggie was really exciting, and I wanted to go out with a bang and have a nice memory of it. It's been so good to me and I'm blessed to have it."

With a tally of 33 points the Aggie men produced a tight group finish which had its scoring five placing 4-5-7-8-9 in compiling its team score. Kentucky finished as the team runner-up with 41 points off a 1-6-10-11-13 effort while Lamar placed third with 81 points.

"I thought it was a solid effort on a warm and humid day," said Texas A&M assistant coach Wendel McRaven. "The men had four up in the lead pack early on and then we put our fifth runner up there by the finish. We haven't raced in three weeks, so this race gave us a chance to get out there and compete. I thought they did a good job and were very solid.

"On the men's side Kentucky gave us a good race. That was good for our guys, because we want to be challenged and learn how to race better. It was nice having Kentucky here, because that adds a little bit of the SEC flavor to the meet, and we appreciate Lipscomb coming out of their region to run here. It was good for our kids to compete against them. "

The women's team title was claimed by Rice with a scant two-point edge over Baylor, 70-72. Another two-point margin separated third and fourth place in the women's race with Lipscomb (80) over Kentucky (82).

A score of 123 point had the Aggie women placing fifth to finish ahead of TCU (176), LSU (214), Lamar (231), Houston (262) and Sam Houston (275).

Leading the Texas A&M men's winning effort was Austin Wells, who finished fifth overall, as he covered the 8,000-meter course in 24:12.7. He also led the Aggie effort a year ago when he placed sixth in the race. This time, though, his leading effort combined with a strong group finish for Texas A&M as it produced a team victory for the Aggies.

"It's definitely a good start in where we want to be," said Wells. "It was a very good team effort, I think our spread was 15 seconds through our top five. That's what we're looking for right now. We really wanted to work together through the 5km and then try to push the last three.

"This is where I want to be right now, at this point of the season, but there is definitely room to improve on. It was hot out here with the humidity and you felt it in the last 2 to 3km. The goal was to go at 5km, but I felt a little tired so I went at 6km. That's when I tried to move up over the remaining portion of the race and improve a few places."

Houston's Brian Barraza, running unattached, defended his title on the course from a year ago as he won the men's race in 23:53.0.

Kentucky's Jacob Thomson, who swept the SEC Outdoor 5,000m and 10,000m titles in 2016, led the collegiate field with a runner-up finish of 24:12.7 to place ahead of LSU's Dajour Braxton, who ran 24:18.7, and Enrique Soto of McNeese State (24:21.4).

Following Wells on the Aggie squad was Elliott Farris in seventh place, with a clocking of 24:25.9, while the trio of Cameron Villarreal (24:36.7), Jacob Perry (24:38.1) and Christian Farris (24:39.1) claimed places 9-10-11.

The first five finishers for Texas A&M produced times that were separated by only a 17-second gap as they placed among the top 11 runners overall. The second group of five Aggie runners also finished within a gap of 17 seconds.

Colin Stoeber led the next group of Texas A&M runners in the men's field as he placed 31^st in 25:26.0 with Jon Bishop finishing 33^rd (25:28.3), Eli Canal in 36^th (25:34.7), Julian Castellano 38^th (25:34.9) and Taylor Clayton 42^nd (25:43.2).

Following Jochen's effort for the Aggie women was freshman Ashley Driscoll, who placed 19^th with a time of 21:37.1. Katie Watson ran 21:54.0 in placing 32^nd with Devin Norton crossing the line in 21:59.0 for 36^th. Rounding out Texas A&M's scoring five was Kelsey Persyn in 42^nd with a clocking of 22:08.2.

"Our women are making nice progress," noted McRaven. "Karis did a nice job and this is her stomping grounds here. She knows how to race well and I don't think she's had a bad race on this course. For her to run as fast as she did, as well as the top five women in this race, on this day was impressive."

The next wave of Aggie women finishers included the trio of Haley Deakins (44^th – 22:18.3), Laura Craig (45^th – 22.19.1) and Lauryn Barrientos (46^th – 22:20.3). Arin Rice (50^th – 22:28.8) and Olivia Arriaza (54^th – 22:36.5) rounded out the top 10 finishers for Texas A&M.

Texas A&M Invitational – Dale Watts Course – September 24, 2016

Men
Teams: 1. Texas A&M, 33; 2. Kentucky, 41; 3. Lamar, 81; 4. McNeese State, 140; 5. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 153; 6. LSU, 171; 7. Lipscomb, 185; 8. Central Arkansas, 221; 9. Sam Houston State, 271; 10. Houston, 271; 11. UTSA, 277; 12. Tarleton State, 305; 13. TCU, 406; 14. Prairie View A&M, 458; 15. Texas Southern, 458.

Women
Teams: 1. Rice, 70; 2. Baylor, 72; 3. Lipscomb, 80; 4. Kentucky, 82; 5. Texas A&M, 123; 6. TCU, 176; 7. LSU, 214; 8. Lamar, 231; 9. Houston, 262; 10. Sam Houston State, 275; 11. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 287; 12. Central Arkansas, 315; 13. UTSA, 341; 14. Tarleton State, 416; 15. Texas Wesleyan, 470; 16. Houston Baptist, 482; 17. Prairie View A&M, 516.