By Riley Zayas
ROUND ROCK, Texas — The Texas men’s and women’s cross country teams stayed cool on a hot day Friday in Round Rock, as both squads finished on top in their respective 5K races for the team category in the Texas Invitational.
Competing alongside runners from local universities like Trinity (Texas), Concordia, Prairie View A&M and St. Edward’s, the Longhorns had one of the biggest teams at the meet and had nine runners post times of 16:00 or faster.
From the start, both the men’s and women’s teams got[s2If current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] out in front and held their positions for the remainder of the races. In the men’s race, which kicked off the meet, freshman Haftu Knight led the pack and earned his first individual win as a Longhorn.
Following him were eight other Longhorns, each of whom contributed to the early-season victory. Freshman Kobe Yepez had a homecoming of sorts, as the Round Rock native finished fifth in his first collegiate meet. Senior Dan Golden also had an exceptional performance as he finished eighth with a personal best in 15:49.08.
The men put up a perfect score of 15 points, their second consecutive perfect score this season.
In the women’s race, which followed, senior Destiny Collins broke away from the pack and sprinted to victory in 17:34.94. Collins now has two individual wins on the season as she won two weeks ago at the Bear Twilight Invitational in Waco. The four-time Big 12 Runner of the Week reached the finish line 12 seconds ahead of the rest of the field. Harvard transfer Kathryn Gillespie came in second for Texas, followed by freshmen Beth Ramos and Isabel Hebner. The Longhorns dominated the women’s race, claiming 18 of the top 20 places. This was a solid performance by the women, especially at a longer distance than the meet in Waco.
“It’ll be nice to see how some of our kids handle a little bit longer distance than we ran in Waco,” women’s head coach Patti Sue Plumer said prior to the meet in an article on Texassports.com.
The UT women’s team handled it extremely well, also scoring a perfect 15 points in the first-place finish. Teams always seem to perform better at home, and it showed in the Longhorns’ performance. With at least half the crowd clad in burnt orange, the atmosphere gave them an edge as they sprinted through the finish line. This strong performance should give the Longhorns momentum as they look ahead to the Concordia Cross Country Classic Sept. 27 and the Bill Dellinger Invitational Sept. 28 in Springfield, Oregon.
With these victories, the Horns await the newest standings release by the U.S Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) which will be released Monday, Sept. 16. Each UT team currently sits at tied for second place in the South Central region. This meet also gave multiple freshmen the opportunity to show what they could do, and get key experience.
“I think it went well,” men’s coach Pete Watson said. “We got what we wanted out of it. I wanted the young boys to run together early and just race each other for the last mile. I’ve got a good group of competitive men who don’t like to finish behind their teammates, so we had a bit of fun at the end.”
[/s2If] [s2If !current_user_can(access_s2member_level2)] [habeabk] [/s2If]
Discover more from Horns Illustrated
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.