Cross Country South Central Preview (hope you enjoy
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LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WE ARE LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE FOR THE MAIN EVENT OF THE (MORNING) IIIIIIIIIIIITTTTTSSSSS TIIIIIIIIIIMMMMMMMEEEEEEEE!
The day is here! The 2022 NCAA South Central Regional Cross Country Championships is live and guess what, we are hosting! That's right! Our Aggie distance dudes and divas will be running for a chance at qualifying for nationals! How it works is teams throughout the south central region will compete and the top two teams will qualify! Cross country team scoring is scored based on an individual's placing. The lowest score of a team's top 5 runners' places combined will win! The south central region consists of universities in Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
During the regular season our men and women have had their best season in a good while! Lots of PR's and strong team finishes! Distance Coach Wendel McRaven is quickly shifting the culture here at Texas A&M and our distance program is on the rise! Much to the contrary of popular belief that we don't invest in our cross country program. While we may not invest as many scholarships in distance as others, we are still recruiting excellent runners and the talent and character of our athletes is now paying off!
Women's Preview
Our women have had an excellent season and they have run strong together! We are led by the magnificent super senior trio of Grace Plain, Abbey Santoro, and Julia Abell. These 3 young women all entered in 2018 and their consistent hard work has paid off. There might not be any better student-athletes to represent what Texas A&M embodies than these 3. They all have worked the past 5 years for this moment and I'm sure they're not ready to call it quits after Friday. These girls deserve a chance at nationals and if I'm on the team I'm giving it my all for these seniors.
Last year our girl's finished 6th as a team. We struggled to get out in a good position and spent the majority of the race playing catch up which is taxing on the body especially in a field of nearly 200 athletes. Thankfully we have been to two large meets this year; one in Pennsylvania and the other the one we hosted which had over 400 runners! Getting out to a quick start and positioning ourselves at the front is pivotal for our girls to have a chance. Although starting the season shaky, we saw the Arkansas women dominate at conference; and they're just too talented for us to compete with. That leaves a question on who will get that 2nd spot. It will be a dog fight between us, LSU, and Texas with SMU and Rice being dark horses.
Our top 3 girls should put us in contention, but to separate us from the rest of the field it would be imperative if Julia Black and/or Grace Plain can place in the top 10/15! Abbey staying with them would be huge! Last year they finished 14th, 23rd, and 51st. If all 3 can stay in the top 20/25 range our chances of going to nationals skyrocket! This will help because our competition Texas and LSU all have a top girl then drop in depth. Texas has a stud in Beth Ramos who could place in the top 5, however she struggled at conference. We need our top 3 to run with her! It would be enormous if our 1-2-3 can place higher than their 2. So we need to keep an eye on who is running 2nd and 3rd for Texas, it could interchange between Monica Hebner, Eva Jess, and Valery Tobias. We also need our 3 and 4 to run well which will most likely be Dierdre Nelson and Maddie Linvingston! Texas's depth after Ramos if she runs well drops a little but they stay tight so we need our 4 and 5 to run with them if our top girls can stay ahead! LSU is in a similar style but they have two girls that can run up top and that beat all our runners at conference. Lorena Rangel Batres and Michaela Rose led LSU and helped them narrowly edge us out! These two are strong runners and we need out 3 to run with them and hopefully pass them! LSU. Our 4th beat their 3rd runner which bodes well in a slightly bigger meet. But I believe all our 5 can beat their 3-5 which would mean we are in a good position to beat them out.
What will also be important is how the front of this race shapes out! Leading the region will be the dominant Grace Forbes of Rice. She will determine the pace and it'll be interesting to see how fast she wants to go! There are several other athletes that will be in the lead group or a group behind Forbes. Irene Rono of ACU will be fighting with Izabel Van Camp of Arkansas and Ruth Jerubet of UTEP for 2nd.
At the end of the day our girls have what it takes to qualify for nationals! It's much easier said than done, but I believe in these ladies and this season has felt special from when the first gun went off! As Pat Henry says we gotta have our best day on the same day! These girls, especially our seniors, deserve a trip to nationals and let's hope it comes to fruition on Friday!
Men's Preview
"Give me an army of distance runners, I'll win a battle, give me an army with Eric Casarez and we'll qualify for nationals," I think that's what General Patton said! It's hard to single out Eric Casarez with the talent we have. But I would be remiss if I didn't mention the amazing individual feats Eric has achieved this season. He has been top 8 in every race this season with one of those races where he ran a third of it with one shoe lol! Eric will lead a talented, fearless, and determined group of Aggies who have been running hard all year!
Many Aggie men have all ran great races but this sport is scored 1-5 and who runs behind Eric is important! It has shuffled a bit but we have to consider we are now running a 10k and not an 8k. Which can be a huge difference for some runners! Someone I see as our 2nd guy in a 10k is Francesco Romano. The grad transfer from Eastern Illinois has been running strong late and will be pivotal to our team's success! We know Arkansas is strong, very strong! Behind them is Texas who has looked both strong and vulnerable this season! Last year Texas and Arkansas occupied 8 of the top ten runners and we were nowhere to be found. Casarez faded back. However, he is a brand new runner this year. There is a strong chance Eric Casarez can beat all the tu runners. Doing so would be huge and give us a big advantage and shake up the team results that happened last year. Eric qualified for nationals individually in 2019 and I bet he makes his return this year.
There are some strong runners in this region. Arkansas' Patrick Kiprop leads the way followed by several texas runners and Casarez. Texas has some solid depth in Haftu Knight, Roger Rivera and Isaac Alonzo. There 4 and 5 have interchanged, it is imperative our guys stay with them. Our men have shown to run fearlessly and take chances before. So, I know our guys will give themselves a shot. If Casarez can stay with Kiprop like he did in conference then Casarez can assure himself a spot in the top 3 or 5 at the very least. Him beating the Texas guys would be huge, then what's even more important is to see if Romano and Chandon Chhikara can stay with their top 3 guys. It will be a hard feat to accomplish but if they can then we have a shot. Jonathan Chung ran well at conference but made a bold move early that cost him a few spots. Chung staying with Romano and Chhikara will be huge and we need our 4 and 5 to beat theirs! Our 5 is interesting because I believe it could be Gavin Hoffpauir who has a strong PR even though he's a 1500/mile specialist! We need to keep track that Hoffpauir stays close to our guys and the guys from texas!
Other athletes to watch out for are Bradley Mckuvire of Tulane who took down the one shoe running Casarez at the Arturo Barrios, Dennis Kipnengo of TAMU CC, Kolyn Saltzman of New Orleans, George Wheeler of Lamar, and Victor Neive of North Texas.
It's a tougher shot than the women but our men have a shot at qualifying for nationals as well! I have faith in our men. Casarez might be a shoe-in (pun intended) for nationals individually but I am sure he has teammates on his mind first and foremost. Arkansas and Texas are two very strong distance programs and they dominated the field last year. So it will take a big chance for our men to give themselves a shot and get out hard to compete with those two schools, but that's what makes this sport fun. It's a collection of who's 5 can run better on that day than your 5, and I wouldn't want to root for any other group of men!
Let's all pack Dale Watts tomorrow. Even if you're a cross country novice, you being there in maroon willing our men and women down the homestretch means the world. Seeing a see of maroon on both sides of the course has to be the best feeling ever. Our runners deserve the best home field advantage there is.
