HOUSTON, Texas – The Texas A&M-Corpus Christi men and women's cross country teams both raced to a top-three finish Friday night at the Rice Invitational with five student-athletes posting individual top-10 times.
The women went first at 6:20 p.m. and ended in second place out of 10 teams in the 4000m with a team time of 1:13:15.80. They finished right behind the hosts as the Owls turned in a 1:10:59.50 time.
Freshman
Alicia Finnis paced the women's team, finishing third overall with a time of 13:56.70. Fellow freshman
Embla Hreimsdottir also finished top-10 individually in ninth place after crossing at 14:37.50. It is the second meet in a row that Finnis was the Islanders top finisher after also ending in third in the season opener. She improved on her time, though, after previously racing the 4000m with a 14:26.55 time.
The underclassmen continued through the Islanders' third and fourth best times as freshman
Micah Mizell finished 11th overall with a 14:43.50 time while freshman
Neele Heyne crossed right behind her at 14:45.00 for a 12-place finish. Senior
Kate Brockman rounded out the women's top-five (15:13.30).
"I am very proud of how both teams raced today," said head coach
Bryan Jackson. "On the women's side, we raced closer to our full team and came up a bit short to a top-10 team in the region. I'm excited for this group and what's to come."
The men began at 6:50 p.m. and raced out to a third-place finish out of nine teams in the 5200m. They posted a team time of a 1:21:27.70 and finished behind Stephen F. Austin (1:20:58.90) and Rice (1:20:35.50).
The men also saw a young group lead the pack for the Islanders, with freshman
Dominic Kiptum finishing second overall with a personal time of a 15:40.50 in his collegiate debut.
Senior
Emil Hajjaj came in eighth (16:13.40) while freshman
Diego Canto finished ninth (16:17.00) to round out the top-10 individual performances on the night. Capping the night for the Islanders were freshmen Phillip Jensen E Castro (16:34.60) and
Andrew Rivas (16:42.20) to finish out the men's top-five times.
"On the men's side, we definitely raced a younger team tonight, but they showed up and competed hard," said Jackson.
That concludes the September slate for the Islanders, who will return to the course on Oct. 4 at Notre Dame to race in the Joe Paine Invite.
"We are in a great place for this time of year, and I can't wait to see the growth that takes place over the next few weeks as we prepare for the important stretch of our season," Jackson said.
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