News release from Texas A&M Athletics:
BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION – The Texas A&M cross country team earned a pair of top-10 finishes at the SEC Championships Friday morning at the Watts Cross Country Course, as the men placed eighth, while the women finished 10th.
The Aggies secured their third-straight season with top-10 finishes on both sides at the conference championships. Kennady Fontenot was the highest-ranked women’s finisher for A&M for the first time this season on the 6k course, while Gilbert Rono followed suit for the men, topping the Maroon & White’s leaderboard on the 8k circuit.
“I’m proud of the women’s group and the work they’ve put in prior to this meet,” distance coach Wendel McRaven said. “Kennady [Fontenot] did a nice job stepping up to lead the team. We’ve got a really young group on the women’s side and if we can get the performance to click, we can be a really good team.”.
The Aggie women got the day started with a 10th-place finish as Fontenot led the group with a 40th-place result after recording a time of 20:11.8. Other point scorers included Megan Roberts in 45th (20:14.4), Maddie Peters in 52nd (20:19.0), Shewaye Johnson in 67th (20:37.0) and Elise Smoot in 73rd (20:39.9).
“Gilbert [Rono] really stepped up today and ran his best race of the season,” McRaven added. “We’re also young on the men’s side, as we have true freshman last year who are now sophomores and improving race by race. We’re a little disappointed in the execution today, but we’ll be back ready for Regionals in two weeks.”.
On the men’s side, Rono was the top point scorer after recording a time of 23:28.0 to place 30th. He was followed by Jack Johnston in 36th (23:37.1), Zack Munger in 43rd (23:42.2), Jonathan Chung in 45th (23:42.5) and Luca Santorum in 62nd (24:08.8).
TEAM RESULTS
Alabama won the women’s event with 72 points, followed by Tennessee (103), Florida (122), Arkansas (132), Texas (150), Ole Miss (155), LSU (213), Auburn (223), Vanderbilt (253), Texas A&M (269), Mississippi State (273), Oklahoma (283), Missouri (291), South Carolina (312), Kentucky (318) and Georgia (487).
Winning the men’s event was Arkansas with 38 points, followed by Alabama (52), Ole Miss (122), Texas (152), Missouri (163), Tennessee (169), Auburn (175), Texas A&M (207), Oklahoma (221), Kentucky (230), Georgia (272), Florida (319), Vanderbilt (367) and LSU (396).
SEASON RECORD
Men’s
Cowboy Preview – 2nd place – 3-1
Texas A&M Invitational – 2nd place – 12-1
Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational – 23rd place – 1-22
Arturo Barrios Invitational – 3rd place – 35-2
SEC Championships – 8th place – 6-7
Women’s
Cowboy Preview – 1st place – 3-0
Texas A&M Invitational 2nd place – 14-1
Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational – 24th place – 1-23
Arturo Barrios Invitational – 9th place – 32-8
SEC Championships – 10th place – 6-9
To learn more about Texas A&M track & field/cross country, log on to 12thMan.com and follow @aggietfxc.