LAKE CHARLES, La. - Despite the poor weather conditions and the late schedule addition, the Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Cross Country team put together a monumental performance Saturday morning at the Lake Charles Toyota McNeese Cowboy Stampede, sweeping first-place across both the men's and women's fields. The Islanders managed to place three runners in the top five of both fields with senior
Allyson Girard outpacing the entire women's race by an impressive 55.0 seconds, notching her first individual win of the season.
"I'm really proud of their effort and determination in very tough conditions," Islanders' head coach
Brent Ericksen said following the meet. "I'm excited to see our potential and where we go from here."
Girard's fellow seniors
Cynthia Quiroga and
Samantha Miller slid into third and fifth, respectively, while junior
Morgan McCutchen and sophomore
Valentina Campos rounded out the scoring runners at sixth and ninth. Despite not factoring into the final scoring decision, a pair of freshman --
Alana Blankenship and
Marissa Martinez -- also ran exceptionally well, placing 18th and 24th on the final leaderboard.
The final team scoring saw the women top host and South Central No. 13 McNeese State (second) along with fellow Southland members Sam Houston State (third), Northwestern State (fifth), Houston Baptist (sixth) and Nicholls State (ninth).
On the men's side, junior college transfer
Oscar Leyva reaffirmed his immediate impact role for the Islanders, capturing a second-place finish just a few weeks after opening his time with the program with an individual win at the Rice Invitational. Less than 30.0 seconds off the leader's time, sophomore
Isaac Vargas and senior
Marek Spriestersbach placed fourth and fifth, respectively, while senior
Steven Galli and freshman
Matthew Lara closed out scoring finishes at eighth and 20th. Similar to the women's field, freshmen Juan Salinas and
Andrew Gandy compiled notable performances outside the Islanders' scoring group.
Similar to the women's final leaderboard, the men squad outpaced host and South Central No. 5 McNeese State (second) along with fellow Southland members Sam Houston State (fourth), Northwestern State (fifth), Houston Baptist (sixth) and Nicholls State (10th).
Next up for the cross country team will be the Texas A&M Arturo Barrios Invitational on Saturday, Oct. 13 in College Station, Texas.
For more information on Islanders Cross Country, follow the team on Twitter (
@IslandersTFXC), Instagram (
@IslandersTFXC) and like their Facebook page (
Islanders Track & Field/Cross Country).
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