Warren, Perry lead Aggies to team sweep in Texas A&M Invitational

Saturday, September 22

College Station

8 a.m.

Texas A&M

Texas A&M Invitational

Sep 22, 2018 | Cross Country

University men results University women results HS Boys results HS Girls results JV Boys results JV Girls results

COLLEGE STATION – The Aggie cross country team swept team titles behind leading efforts from Kelsie Warren and Jacob Perry at the Texas A&M Invitational held on the Watts Cross Country on Saturday morning.

"The course held up well from all the rain we received the last couple of weeks and especially in the past 24 hours," noted Texas A&M assistant coach Wendel McRaven. "The kids ran well. We're training hard this time of the season, so you will see people react differently to racing through that tired-leg feeling.

"We won both team titles, so that's good. I thought we had some good groups running together, and that was pretty impressive. It increased the maturity on the men's side. While on the women's side some people are coming out of the woodwork and producing good races."

Warren placed third in the women's 6,000m race with a time of 21:50.37. Mercy Chelangat of UT Rio Grande Valley won in 21:14.03 while Rice's Lourdes Vivas di Lorenzi finished as runner-up in 21:47.88.

"I'm really proud of our girls," said Warren. "We've been putting in some really hard work during practice. The biggest thing I did today was I told myself just to have fun. This is early in the season and I'm just happy to be out here racing healthy. So, for me it was get out here, move the legs and test yourself."

Scoring 64 points produced the team victory for the Aggie women over 73 for TCU and 87 by UTRGV. The rest of the field included Rice (90), Lamar (154), Houston (157), Georgia State (173), Abilene Christian (201), Southeastern Louisiana (244), Sam Houston State (252), Tulane (275), Tarleton State (316) and Texas A&M-Kingsville (382).

Perry finished 11^th in the men's race, covering the 8,000m course in 24:57.80 while teammates Jon Bishop (24:59.78), Brandt Preston (25:03.40), Zephyr Seagraves (25:05.40) and Wes McPhail (25:06.83) occupied places 13-15-16-17 to complete Texas A&M's winning team score of 72 points.

"When I finished the race I took two or three steps, turned around and saw four teammates cross the line pretty much at the same time," said Perry. "I thought, wow, within a 10-second spread we had five across the line. It's a great feeling when you see that."

Finishing second to the Aggies in the men's team score was Tarleton State (91) with Lamar (94) in third. While Tarleton's top two runners placed sixth and 12^th in the race and Lamar's first pair finished third and 10^th, Texas A&M was able to get five runners across the finish line before either team had a third runner come in.

"We've had a group of guys who have been trying to stay together as much as we can in training," noted Perry. "Wes McPhail, who is a freshman, has been with a second group training a little bit back with lower volume guys. I'm really impressed with how he raced and competed today."

The rest of the men's field included Old Army TC (121), UTRGV (165), Tulane (173), Louisiana Tech (175), Southeastern Louisiana (208), Sam Houston State (209), Houston (232), Abilene Christian (272), TCU (303), Texas A&M-Kingsville (361) and Texas Southern (361).

Tulane's Emmanuel Rotich won the men's race in 23:43.28 over a 23:51.83 from Abraham Chirchir of UT Rio Grande Valley while Lamar's Jamie Crowe finished third in 24:00.53.

Ashley Driscoll clocked 22:22.61 to place 13^th in the women's race and led a crew of Aggie women who finished 15-16-17-18. The group included Nikki Keys (22:32.47), Carrie Fish (22:34.12), Lizette Chapa (22:36.20) and Rachel Bernardo (22:43.85).

The next wave of A&M runners included Grace Plain (25^th, 22:55.54), Valarie Bradley (30^th, 23:04.60), Megan Hopper (34^th, 23:09.00), Lauryn Barrientos (35^th, 23:09.07), Olivia Arriaza (36^th, 23:11.22), Sarah Pia (48^th, 23:40.03) and Emily McCollum (52^nd, 23:44.25).

In the men's race Gavin Hoffpauir the sixth runner for the Aggies, placing 23^rd in 25:23.28 as Taylor Clayton claimed the seventh position as he ran 25:45.26 to place 34^th. A trio of A&M runners finished in succession with Harrison Tillman (49^th, 26:15.20), Noah Jacobs (50^th, 26:16.13) and Juan Arcila (51^st, 26:18.70). They were followed by Zach Martin (54^th, 26:22.62) and Eli Canal (58^th, 26:28.60).

An Old Army team consisting of Aggie alums raced in the men's field. Henry Lelei led the group as he finished fourth overall in 24:29.99 as Ryan Miller placed ninth in 24:53.39, Cameron Villarreal finished 14th in 25:00.07 while Alex Riba was 35^th in 25:45.34.