Friday, October 29
Columbia, Mo.
10:00 AM
Texas A&M
at
SEC Championships
Photo by: Aiden Shertzer
Goddard Earns All-Freshman Honors, Aggies Complete SEC Championships
Oct 29, 2021 | Cross Country
COLUMBIA, Mo. – The Texas A&M men's and women's cross country teams completed the Southeastern Conference Championships, while freshman Gemma Goddard earned All-SEC honors Friday at the Gans Creek Cross Country Course.
Eric Casarez led the men's team to a ninth place finish (229 points), while Goddard paced the women's team to an 11th place finish (270 points).
Running in a cold 50-degree drizzle, Casarez got out the starter's box hot running with the front pack splitting the first 2,000m at 5:51.6. It was around the 3,000m mark the sophomore began slipping in the standings before falling out of the top-20. The Fort Worth native placed 25th overall with a time of 24:18.0.
Brady Grant (31st, 24:30.3) and Gavin Hoffpauir (49th, 25:01.3) each recorded top-50 finishes, while Juan Arcila (67th, 25:20.6) and Jonathan Chung (70th, 25:28.9) rounded out the top five scorers for the Maroon & White.
To the contrary in the women's race, Goddard paced herself to a 2,000m split of 6:59.4 running in 81st place. The Austin native slowly began making her move passing runners one after the other before finishing 36th overall at 21:32.4. In the field of 139 runners, Goddard was the second-fastest overall true freshman earning Women's Freshman All-SEC honors.
Other top-five finishes for the women's team include Julia Black (52nd, 21:49.0), Abbey Santoro (54th, 21:50.5), Grace Plain (61st, 21:56.7) and Maddie Livingston (83rd, 22:19.3).
Next Up
Texas A&M takes a week off from competition before entering the NCAA South Central Regional on Nov. 12 in Waco, Texas.
Texas A&M Quotes
Distance Coach Wendel McRaven
on the men's team…
"We're not ecstatic, Eric was probably a little disappointed with his individual race. I was really pleased with Brady [Grant], he stepped up and ran a solid race for us. I thought Brady [Grant] and Gavin [Hoffpauir] did a nice job early in the race finding each other. Our strength on the men's side has to be having a tight two through five split, that's who we are. We are not good enough to run by ourselves and run individually right now. We didn't do a great job of executing that and that's been a little bit of a struggle for the guys all year long."
on the women's team…
"Gemma [Goddard] ran a heck of a race ending up being our No. 1 runner and then our No. 5 runner Maddie [Livingston] also a true freshman, they both ran really well. We're better than we were a year ago and we're moving in the right direction. I think we're an upper half of the conference team. Mizzou got seventh, we beat them by a couple points a month ago...I think it's a matter of getting over that hump where we are back as a top half of the conference team. Part of that is me coaching them up to believing and envisioning where they belong, as well as them continuing to do the work. I told them after the race, the women's culture has improved tremendously since last season. That is going to be very meaningful in the future and they are laying the foundation for some good stuff to happen."
on the NCAA South Central Regional…
"We know who we have to battle in the NCAA South Central Region next meet. There are probably four or five teams that think they can finish in the top two, we're one of those teams and we're in that conversation. It's just a matter of lining up and taking care of business. I told them, it's easy to have a great culture when things are going well. Now is a test, we got knocked down a little bit today. Are we going to rebound in two weeks and run for one another and be the team that we are capable of being."
To learn more about Texas A&M Track & Field/Cross Country, log on to 12thMan.com and follow @aggietfxc.
Eric Casarez led the men's team to a ninth place finish (229 points), while Goddard paced the women's team to an 11th place finish (270 points).
Running in a cold 50-degree drizzle, Casarez got out the starter's box hot running with the front pack splitting the first 2,000m at 5:51.6. It was around the 3,000m mark the sophomore began slipping in the standings before falling out of the top-20. The Fort Worth native placed 25th overall with a time of 24:18.0.
Brady Grant (31st, 24:30.3) and Gavin Hoffpauir (49th, 25:01.3) each recorded top-50 finishes, while Juan Arcila (67th, 25:20.6) and Jonathan Chung (70th, 25:28.9) rounded out the top five scorers for the Maroon & White.
To the contrary in the women's race, Goddard paced herself to a 2,000m split of 6:59.4 running in 81st place. The Austin native slowly began making her move passing runners one after the other before finishing 36th overall at 21:32.4. In the field of 139 runners, Goddard was the second-fastest overall true freshman earning Women's Freshman All-SEC honors.
Other top-five finishes for the women's team include Julia Black (52nd, 21:49.0), Abbey Santoro (54th, 21:50.5), Grace Plain (61st, 21:56.7) and Maddie Livingston (83rd, 22:19.3).
Next Up
Texas A&M takes a week off from competition before entering the NCAA South Central Regional on Nov. 12 in Waco, Texas.
Texas A&M Quotes
Distance Coach Wendel McRaven
on the men's team…
"We're not ecstatic, Eric was probably a little disappointed with his individual race. I was really pleased with Brady [Grant], he stepped up and ran a solid race for us. I thought Brady [Grant] and Gavin [Hoffpauir] did a nice job early in the race finding each other. Our strength on the men's side has to be having a tight two through five split, that's who we are. We are not good enough to run by ourselves and run individually right now. We didn't do a great job of executing that and that's been a little bit of a struggle for the guys all year long."
on the women's team…
"Gemma [Goddard] ran a heck of a race ending up being our No. 1 runner and then our No. 5 runner Maddie [Livingston] also a true freshman, they both ran really well. We're better than we were a year ago and we're moving in the right direction. I think we're an upper half of the conference team. Mizzou got seventh, we beat them by a couple points a month ago...I think it's a matter of getting over that hump where we are back as a top half of the conference team. Part of that is me coaching them up to believing and envisioning where they belong, as well as them continuing to do the work. I told them after the race, the women's culture has improved tremendously since last season. That is going to be very meaningful in the future and they are laying the foundation for some good stuff to happen."
on the NCAA South Central Regional…
"We know who we have to battle in the NCAA South Central Region next meet. There are probably four or five teams that think they can finish in the top two, we're one of those teams and we're in that conversation. It's just a matter of lining up and taking care of business. I told them, it's easy to have a great culture when things are going well. Now is a test, we got knocked down a little bit today. Are we going to rebound in two weeks and run for one another and be the team that we are capable of being."
To learn more about Texas A&M Track & Field/Cross Country, log on to 12thMan.com and follow @aggietfxc.
Players Mentioned
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
SEC Championships Preview: Wendel McRaven
Monday, October 28
NCAA Championships Preview: Wendel McRaven
Tuesday, November 14
NCAA Regional Preview: Wendel McRaven
Monday, November 06
SEC Preview Press Conference: Wendel McRaven
Monday, October 23
