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A&M men defend home course

A&M girls take second at cross country meet

By JERRY WAGGONER
Special to The Eagle

Texas A&M, A&M Consol-idated and Cameron led a host of Brazos Valley cross country teams that scored well Saturday at Penberthy Complex in the annual Texas A&M Invitational.

The gigantic meet featuring 2,200 total contestants showed that Texas A&M is already strong on both the men's and women's sides in this early part of the season. A&M's men defended their title and won their home meet for the fifth straight year, while the Aggie women placed third.

Several area high school teams also competed in the hot, humid conditions, with Consol's girls highlighting the local effort by taking second in the Class 5A-4A seeded division.

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Buy this photo Eagle Photo/Gabriel Chmielewski Texas A&M's Christina Munoz, Sarah Balfour, and Brenna Williamson lead over Marissa Daniels of Rice in the early stages of Saturdays 5k at the Texas A&M Invitational Cross Country Meet held at the Texas A&M Intramural Fields Saturday morning.

The Aggies won the men's collegiate 8K division, beating Lamar by 12 points. The two schools were 48 points ahead of the third-place Texas-Arlington.

A&M's women were third behind Rice and Texas.

"This was only our second meet of the year, and we are still trying to get into shape, but our guys did a nice job of running together," A&M distance coach Dan Waters said. "The women were much better than the first meet of the season, and we had two ladies that didn't run because they are still nursing injuries.

"Next week, we'll get a better idea of our strengths and weaknesses because we will be competing in the Notre Dame Invitational, and there will be eight or 10 teams from the Top 30 in that meet. It will be a real test for us."

Waters said A&M's men are considerably ahead of last year's team at this time but must continue to improve to reach their goal of finishing in the top two at the NCAA Regional to earn a spot in the NCAA Championship.

David Hebert led A&M's men by taking third individually in 24 minutes, 18 seconds - 7 seconds behind winner Francis Kasagule of Lamar. Kevin McNab was eighth in 24:54, while A&M's Kevin Ondrasek, Joe Sauvageau and Andrew Montes placed 10th, 12th and 13th respectively.

A&M's Sarah Balfour was fifth in 17:49 - 30 seconds behind winner Marissa Daniels of Rice. A&M's Meredith Snow ran unattached and finished 10th in 18:03. For the Aggie women's competing team, Christina Munoz was 12th, Leigh Berger 17th and Brenna Williamson 20th.

The A&M Consolidated girls finished second to Cinco Ranch, the state's top-ranked 5A team, but beat two-time defending 5A state champion Southlake Carroll. Consol's girls scored 76 points to Southlake Carroll's 79.

"It was a great meet for us," Consol coach Rodney Wellman said. "This was the first time we've beaten Southlake Carroll in four years, and it showed that we are on the right track."

Sally Hayes led Consol with a 13th-place individual finish at 19:22. Also for Consol, Keri Wood finished 21st, Jordan Bettiol 25th and Morgan Hartman 30th.

"It was good because next Saturday we will be in the Oklahoma State Jamboree, and there will be teams there from Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas," Wellman said. "We are the only team from Texas. I hope we run well in that one."

Among the area teams, Cameron's girls - a 3A squad - had the best finish, taking sixth in the main seeded division against mostly 5A competition. Brenda Pena paced the Lady Yoe with a finish of 31st individually. Cameron's Martha Bustamante was 37th and Leticia Bustamante 40th.

Competing individually for Allen Academy, freshman Sarah Brien took 17th in the 3A-2A-A varsity girls division.