News release from Texas A&M Athletics:
BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION – The Aggie cross country team brought home a pair of second-place team finishes at the Texas A&M Invitational Friday morning at the Watts Cross Country Course.
In its 2024 home opener, Texas A&M logged a pair of second-place finishes which added to their first and second place result at the Cowboy Preview. Individually, Zack Munger and San Juanita Leal were the top-placing Aggies, as the pair both recorded third-place results. The Maroon & White ran with the support of 5,540 members of the 12th Man in attendance, spurring on the team in its first of four races at the Watts Cross Country Course this season.
“Overall, I’m really pleased with how both groups ran,” distance coach Wendel McRaven said. “I have to give props to SMU and TCU for taking the wins today, but I think this will light a fire under us and help us get better. We had a lot of our athletes run best times for this course today, so it’s showing us that we’re making some good progress.
“It’s so great to be at racing home and our people do a great job running the meet. We love our course and it’s so great having the 12th Man out here with us.”
The Aggie men raced out of the starting line in the 8k, as Munger, Jack Johnston and Gibert Rono all ranked in the top four at the 2k mark. Continuing to apply pressure, A&M narrowly led as a team at 5.7k. The race came down to home stretch, however the Maroon & White were closely beat by TCU for the men’s team title, finishing second with 39 points. Sophomore Munger earned third place individually for the second-consecutive meet with a time of 23:32.7 to pace the Aggies. Other top-five A&M finishers included Johnston in fifth (23:43.9), Luca Santorum in sixth (23:48.2), Rono in 11th (23:52.6) and Jonathan Chung in 14th (23:54.9).
“I really wanted to see where I was at today,” Munger said. “I was hurting at the 5k, but I gave it everything I had to the end. I think we’re rising up to the challenge as a team, and I’m proud of our group as a whole.
“I love racing at home, and I think it gives us a big advantage for sure. Running with the 12th Man at our back is special, and we get to do it another three times this season.”
On the women’s side, standout freshman, Leal jumped out to an early fight for the lead in the 5k, spearheading the Maroon & White’s lead as a team at the 2k mark. Bringing it home down the Watts straight, A&M finished just five-points shy of the team title behind SMU. Leal led the Aggies with a time of 17:11.5 to earn third place. The remaining point scorers for A&M were Kennady Fontenot (17:25.9), Maddie Peters (17:28.8), Megan Roberts (17:46.7) and Emma Little (17:51.4) placing ninth, 11th, 14th and 16th, respectively.
“It’s my first race here and I was pretty happy with the time,” Leal said. “It’s nice to be racing with a team aspect, as it is a little more individual in high school. We have a really great group and I’m excited to see how we do later in the season.”
TEAM RESULTS
Winning the men’s event was TCU with 36 points, followed by Texas A&M (39), Houston (99), Tarleton State (118), Tulane (157), Sam Houston (184), UT-Arlington (188), St. Edward’s (218), Baylor (231), Louisiana (270), North Texas (284), UT-Tyler (301), TAMU-Commerce (308) and Blinn College (447).
Winning the women’s event was SMU with 48 points, followed by Texas A&M (53), Oklahoma (71), Tulane (120), TCU (150), Baylor (198), Houston (203), UT-Arlington (214), Louisiana (254), Tarleton State (272), St. Edwards (295), Sam Houston (321), UT-Tyler (350), North Texas (433), TAMU-Commerce (466) and Blinn College (512).
SEASON RECORD
Women’s
Cowboy Preview – 1st place – 3-0
Texas A&M Invitational 2nd place – 14-1
Overall record 17-1
Men’s
Cowboy Preview – 2nd place – 3-1
Texas A&M Invitational – 2nd place – 12-1
Overall record 15-2
To learn more about Texas A&M track & field/cross country, log on to 12thMan.com and follow @aggietfxc.