Texas A&M sweeps team titles in Aggie Opener

Friday, August 31

College Station

6:45 p.m.

Texas A&M

Aggie Opener

Aug 31, 2018 | Cross Country

Women's results Men's results Recap

COLLEGE STATION – Texas A&M started the 2018 season with a pair of team victories in the Aggie Opener on a warm Friday evening at the Dale Watts Cross Country course.

The Aggie women, led by the pair of All-SEC runners Ashley Driscoll and Kelsie Warren, totaled 23 points to defeat a five-team field which included UT Rio Grande Valley (39), UTSA (97), Houston (103) and Stephen F. Austin (127).

In the men's race a Texas A&M trio finished together in places 3-4-5 as the Aggies won the team title with 33 points over UT Rio Grande Valley (43), Houston (59), UTSA (108) and Stephen F. Austin (127).

"It was a solid rust buster for us," noted Texas A&M assistant coach Wendel McRaven. "The reason we race this early in the season is to see the good things we are doing as a group and see some of the things we need to work on. It was a good effort and it's always good to win as a team.

"The front two in the women's race did a good job of working together for most of the race. We also had some people make some nice breakthroughs out there. Overall, I was pretty pleased with the women's race. On the men's side, though, they didn't follow the race plan as well. They were antsy to get going. These races give me an opportunity to see where people are in late August as we prepare for the rest of the season."

Aggie Jacob Perry covered the men's 6,000m course in 18:46.1 as teammates Jon Bishop and Zephyr Seagraves were both credited with a time of 18:46.2 as the trio placed third and in a tie for fourth. Abraham Chirchir of UTRGV won the men's title in 18:34.9 as Houston's Nicholas Fernandes placed second in 18:42.0.

"We knew this was the first race, so we trusted Coach McRaven's judgement on what we needed to do," said Bishop. "We were able to gauge what shape we are in while competing. We've just been training the past two months, so it felt like we accomplished something with a race today."

Driscoll posted a time of 14:31.3 on the 4,100m women's course to place second overall as Warren finished third in 14:45.5. Mercy Chelangat of UTRGV won the women's race in 14:29.7.

"It's exciting to start running fast again after training and holding back some in our workouts," stated Driscoll. "I think we did a really good job running in groups."

The next crew of Aggie finishers for the women included four runners, led by Rachel Bernardo in 14:49.9 to place fifth overall. Following here in 6-7-8 place were Lizette Chapa (14:52.5), Valarie Bradley (14:56.7), and Nikki Keys (15:04.8).

Noah Jacobs was the fourth finisher for the A&M men, placing 10^th in 19:04.7 while Brandt Preston clocked 19:14.4 to finish 14^th and complete the Aggie scoring five. The next trio of finishers included Joel Potter (19:37.6, 22^nd), Taylor Clayton (19:47.7, 27^th) and Zach Martin (19:55.0, 30^th).

Another group of five A&M finishers on the women's side included Olivia Arriaza (15:20.4, 15^th), Emily McCollum (15:28.9, 16^th), Amelia McElhinney (15:33.0, 19^th), Lauryn Barrientos (15:35.8, 20^th), and Audrey Spitz (15:41.2, 22^nd).