Radtke Paces Men to Second Place; Women Finish Fourth

Saturday, October 3

Columbia, Mo.

9:00 AM

Texas A&M

Gans Creek Classic

Oct 03, 2020 | Cross Country

Final Results Photo Gallery Photo Gallery

By: Tyler Pounds, Athletics Communications

COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Texas A&M Men's Cross Country team finished second while placing five Aggies in the top 10, the women's team recorded three finishers in the top 25 toward a fourth place team finish Saturday at the Gans Creek Classic.

"I thought the men executed the race really well," assistant coach Wendel McRaven said. "The beginning of the race started out aggressive, they weren't that far off from the front and they didn't put themselves in a stupid position. They were kind of hanging back a little bit running together and to go through 5k with six guys within a second of each other is pretty impressive team running. They're starting to develop their identity as a team, that's good. Overall I think the women didn't get out aggressively enough and that is something we've talked about and will continue to work on. Grace [Plain], Abbey [Santoro] and Julia [Black] all closed really well but they have to be a little bit more aggressive, if they are 3-5 seconds faster at the first 1,000m then it is a completely different outcome for the race."

The Aggie men finished 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 en route to a second place team finish with 40 points, Mizzou won with 34 points and Vanderbilt finished third with 57 points. Texas A&M ran the course as a pack the majority of the race with an average spread of 1.42 seconds between the top five Aggies.

Redshirt freshman Teddy Radtke separated himself from the group splitting the last 1,000m at 2:53.8 to move up three spots to place sixth overall at 24:41.8, Radtke's split was the fastest final 1,000m in the race.

"Teddy [Radtke] continues to really impress me, a year ago he was really a non-entity and a year later now as a redshirt freshman to be leading the charge and to finish as well as he did I don't think he knows how good he could possibly be." McRaven stated.

Making his 2020 debut, junior Wes McPhail followed in seventh place (24:45.0), true freshman Tim McElaney in eighth (24:45.2), junior Gavin Hoffpauir at ninth (24:50.7) and true freshman Cooper Cawthra rounded out the top 10 with a time of 24:57.3.

The Aggie women were paced by junior Grace Plain, she finished the 6k with a time of 21:21.0 in 16th place. Fellow juniors Abbey Santoro and Julia Black followed, Santoro placed 20th at 21:37.4 and Black at 21st in 21:38.6.

"I surprised myself, I felt really strong and good," Plain said. "Even though it has been awhile since I've raced, I kept reminding myself that I'm fit and I've done the training. The strength of our team is being able to run together and know that I have my teammates, if someone else is feeling bad then we will lift each other and get through it together."

At the halfway point Plain recorded a split of 3:33.6 propelling her seven spots from 27th to 20th before she ran the final 1,0000m split at 3:29.1 to cross the finish line placing herself in the top 20.

"For her first race of the season I thought Grace [Plain] did a nice job," said McRaven. "She ran with the group early, felt good and just continued to move up."

Next Up
The Maroon & White take a week off before hosting the Third Annual Arturo Barrios Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 17 at the Watts Cross Country Course.

"We'll get a test in two weeks at home with teams from the Big 12 in the mix and we'll see Arkansas men again, it'll be a barn burner at home." McRaven said.