Cross Country earns silver at XC Classic

Photo by Kaitlin Trujillo
Justice Medina, sophomore, pushes through the last few yards of his run.

Cross Country outpaced the competition on Oct. 11 to take second place overall in both the men’s and women’s races.

The teams competed against Tarleton in the ASU XC Classic at San Angelo with the girls running their first six km of the season to prepare for conference and the boys competing in the eight km.

The women`s cross country team scored second to Tarleton State with a score of 38 points, which is incredible due to how the women`s cross country team consists of brand new runners and only has two returners.

Kelsey Warren, a returning junior, led the girls’ for the entire race and finished first  with a time of 23:56.66.

“I am really proud of how the team and I competed,’’ Warren said “I think we’re going to be really good and that we are prepared for conference.”

At the 3,000-meter mark, Claudia Ramirez, a returning senior, was in sixth place.

“Knowing that I wasn’t in the spot I wanted to be in helped me move up and work harder,” Ramirez said. “I also knew that I had to represent well and help my team.”

This pushed Ramirez to finish in fourth place overall with a time of 24:33.55.

Third for ASU, Kristin Wright placed 10th overall with Valeria Ganderia and Madison Harlow in 11th and 12th place.

The Ram cross country team also took second with 34 points running an eight km  course.

Devitt Smetana, sophomore, placed first out of both teams with a time of 26:35.09.

“I did my very best,” Smetana said. “If our team as a whole can run like we can, we can achieve our goals on whatever we want.”

In second, Zach Cabrera, freshman, placed third overall with a time of 26:51.36.
Angelo Pena placed in 10th, with Preston Brooks and Reese Montgomery in 11th and 12th, respectively.

“The team competed very well when they went out there and I am very happy with the results for the men and woman`s team,” Assistant Coach Trey Brokaw said. “We are definitely prepared to run well at conference next week; I am excited to see how they do.

Our goals revolve around conference and regional meets which are still to come. Conference is in 10 days at Commerce and the NCAA regional championship meet is in two and a half weeks in Denver.”

The conference meet will take place on Oct. 22nd in Commerce.