Thursday, September 8
Lubbock, Texas
8 a.m.
Abilene Christian
at
Texas Tech University
Photo by: Jeremy Enlow
ACU exceeds expectations at first cross country meet
9/8/2016 11:42:00 AM | Cross Country
Women's 6K | Men's 8K
LUBBOCK - Abilene Christian men's and women's cross country teams busted off the rust from a long offseason Thursday morning at the Texas Tech Open, where they competed against 13 other schools from around the state and southwest region.
The men's team, which is stocked with freshmen and first-year Wildcats, finished sixth of 14 schools with 182 points, while the women's team, which is redshirting its leading Southland conference scorers from last season, placed 11th of 12 schools with 245 points.
First-year assistant coach Jarvis Jelen said his teams did well in executing their race place, and overall the performances were better than expected.
"The first half of our race plan was for the runners to stay conservative and stick together, and then go after it in the second half," he said, "but for many of our young guys this was their first 8K course and it was tough and long. Our people did a great job of competing, everyone gave a great effort, and I'm really happy we got help from two of our multi-athletes (Taylor Yantis Woods and Brielle Collette) on the women's side.
"There's definitely room for growth, and I think we'll see some improvements at our next meet."
Junior Gabby Thompson was first to the finish line for ACU in the women's 6K, placing 24th of 98 runners in 24:24.70, and newcomer Sierra Bennett placed among the top half with a 43rd-place mark of 25:42.40.
The men's race was composed of 107 runners, and finishing among the top-30 were Wildcats Travis Nichols (21st, 28:18.70) and Drew Cummings (29th, 28:42.30). Other top half showings were claimed by Lucas Bennett (29:12.10) and Reid Rivers (51st, 29:49.60) and John Baker (29:52.50).
The Wildcats return to action a week from Saturday at the Ken Garland Invitational hosted by North Texas.
LUBBOCK - Abilene Christian men's and women's cross country teams busted off the rust from a long offseason Thursday morning at the Texas Tech Open, where they competed against 13 other schools from around the state and southwest region.
The men's team, which is stocked with freshmen and first-year Wildcats, finished sixth of 14 schools with 182 points, while the women's team, which is redshirting its leading Southland conference scorers from last season, placed 11th of 12 schools with 245 points.
First-year assistant coach Jarvis Jelen said his teams did well in executing their race place, and overall the performances were better than expected.
"The first half of our race plan was for the runners to stay conservative and stick together, and then go after it in the second half," he said, "but for many of our young guys this was their first 8K course and it was tough and long. Our people did a great job of competing, everyone gave a great effort, and I'm really happy we got help from two of our multi-athletes (Taylor Yantis Woods and Brielle Collette) on the women's side.
"There's definitely room for growth, and I think we'll see some improvements at our next meet."
Junior Gabby Thompson was first to the finish line for ACU in the women's 6K, placing 24th of 98 runners in 24:24.70, and newcomer Sierra Bennett placed among the top half with a 43rd-place mark of 25:42.40.
The men's race was composed of 107 runners, and finishing among the top-30 were Wildcats Travis Nichols (21st, 28:18.70) and Drew Cummings (29th, 28:42.30). Other top half showings were claimed by Lucas Bennett (29:12.10) and Reid Rivers (51st, 29:49.60) and John Baker (29:52.50).
The Wildcats return to action a week from Saturday at the Ken Garland Invitational hosted by North Texas.
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