WE'RE HEADING TO NATIONALS!! WHOOP! WHOOP!!
Well done ladies!!

Nationals Preview

Our girls qualified. End of story. Hooray!





Just kidding just kidding! Well not really lol! I'm not sure what to do with this preview, but I figured I'd turn it into a congratulatory post for our women and an early thank you post for Eric Casarez.

Last Friday our ladies began their pursuit for a national qualifying bid. In the sport of cross country, there are 10 distinct geographical regions. The top 2 placing teams from each regional auto advance to nationals. Then another 11 qualify at large. We are in region with schools from Arkansas, Louisiana, and most of Texas. Arkansas has always been the top girls team in the region and there has been different teams occupy that second spot, mostly tu. It had been 23 years since Texas A&M got that second spot. However, The Maddie's, Kennady, Shewaye, Emma, and coaches McRaven and Abell had something to say about that!

Going into the season, there were a lot of question marks to be answered. We had lost a trio of talented runners in Julia Abell, Grace Plain, and Abbey Santoro to graduation. We were unsure of Gemma Godard's health. Who would be our number 1 runner. Did we have depth. Was Shewaye Johnson ready to compete in college. Would we have a number 5 to keep us in contention. Tu and Tulane had some quality transfers coming in. SMU and LSU brought back their entire team. Our pre season rank was 5th in the region and understandably so.

As the season went on we learned early on that Maddie Livingston was going to be really great for us but her ascent towards dominance grew each meet as she totally transformed herself from last season. We learned that Kennady Fontenot had established herself as one of our best runners even only as a sophomore. We learned that Madison Brown, a Dallas Baptist Transfer, was a solid and experienced runner who was desperately needed. We learned that Shewaye Johnson was a fantastic freshman and was not scared of the spotlight, instead thrived in it. And although it took some time, we learned how valuable the number 5 runner is to a cross country team. The first 3 meets we had a strong 1-4, but our 5 was way behind. We needed someone to step up. Not to hyperbolize it, but our season stood in the balance on what this number 5 runner would do. Then came the rise of Emma Little. The Lake Creek alum would come to save our season. At conference she shot all the way up and finished right behind Shewaye and we hoped she could repeat the performance at regionals to give us any shot. And that's exactly what she did! Although we ended up having a convincing lead in hindsight, and Madison Brown and Kennady Fontenot ran well past expectations, Emma Little's performance solidified out spot to nationals. That's what I love about cross country. Everyone is important and everyone has an impact on the team score. It's a team sport, and which is why as a former thrower and throws coach, I appreciate cross country so much.

I can preview the meet and talk about where we stand with the other 30 schools. But we need to appreciate all it took to get there and what it means for our program and its future. We have come close many years and there were many years where it was our spot to lose. We all needed to have a great day on the same day. It needed to take a special group of girls, and that's what we have.

Leading us through most of the season was Maddie Livingston, a junior from Dripping Springs who for the past 2 seasons was always our 4th or 5th best runner. However, she put in the work and it was evident on the track last spring. She was getting better and better each time she stepped on the track and that success would translate into this fall.

Another integral part to our team was when we got a transfer from Dallas Baptist Hniversity over the summer. A grad transfer with one year of eligibility, Madison Brown came in with a wealth of experience and we hoped she be an important piece to our success and she came in and has delivered consistency and leadership. She had her best race at regionals earning 9th and leading the way for the Ags.

Next in line is sophomore Kennady Fontenot, formerly a unicorn from New Braunfels (will never get over the unicorn mascot). Kennady was a huge signing to our distance class 2 years ago. She showed great signs as a true freshman last fall placing 40th at regionals, but her positive ascent this season has been nothing short of spectacular. Most college athletes will improve each year, but Fontenot has seen great strides and has firmly established herself as one of the top runners in the region after her 14th place. Get used to her name!

Our 4th runner and one of the most important pieces to this team has been the fabulous freshman Shewaye Johnson out of Prosper, Texas. According to the Dallas News, Shewaye was from Ethiopia and was placed in orphanages there after losing her mom. She became adopted and lived in Iowa before transferring to Prosper her junior year. After being one of the states most heralded recruits, she had offers from many school across the nation. However, she found a home in College Station and we should be thankful she chose us. She came onto the scene during the first meet and said to hell with the first year nerves and ran exceptionally well and hasn't looked back since. She is going to be an all American for us one day. We still have her for 3.5 more years and she is going to accomplish so many great things in the maroon and white. So glad she's an Aggie.

The aforementioned hero of the group is sophomore Emma Little. The Lake Creek Alum out of Montgomery, Texas has been an integral part to this team and is a huge reason why our girls are in Virginia today. Little started the season out a little slow, but shut up all the doubters and showed everyone why she was such a great runner and recruit out of Lake Creek. Only a sophomore, she has just gotten better and better as the season has gone on and with her improvement so improved the team. She was over 70 spots behind the other 4 girls at the Arturo Barrios meet, and at conference and regionals she ran right with them finishing behind Shewaye. She is our hero and if you see her around the College Station area, bow before her and say thank you Emma Little

I hate to get ahead, but this season's success, and the foundation laid before it by the talented ladies before this year, has created a promising future and culture for our program. Our recruiting pitch just got a whole lot sweeter and we are now a place where top runners in the state will want to be. Texas is a hot bed for distance recruits. Our team was led by a junior in Livingston, 2 sophomores in Fontenot and Little, and a freshman in Shewaye. This race will be important for our girls to become familiar with because we will be back next year. This experience will be important! Behind them we have a strong collection of underclassmen talent and we have some great runners coming in. Madison Peters if Pearland would contribute today is she was here and Debra Cherono of Kenya could be our number one runner next year, so safe to say, bet the farm on McRaven and the ladies next season! Remember when we go on a run of team national qualifying births, remember I called it first!

On the men's side, we did lose a great group of runners in Chandon Chhikara, Francesco Romano, Gavin Hoffpauir, Teddy Radtke, and others and we were in a tough region with two of the nations top teams in Arkansas and Texas. However, we did have an individual qualify and that was none other than Eric Casarez. Our leader and star for the past 5 seasons, Casarez, the Keller Central alum and OU transfer, has done nothing but run his heart out and represent A&M wonderfully his entire time here. During his first season here he advanced to nationals and due to injuries and unfortunate circumstances has yet to head back till this year. Casarez has had to carry that burden of the lead man and the talented runner finally got a breakthrough this season after he qualified to nationals. One of the nations best, Casarez has accomplished so much for this school and has multiple school records. It was only fitting to see him get one more cross country race in the maroon and white. You know he'll run fearlessly and put it all on the line as he's done his entire Aggie career!

Well tomorrow should be fun to follow, the races begin at 9:20 for the women's and will be televised, that's right CROSS COUNTRY ON TV ON ESPNU! The girls will be an interesting race the battle for the top team will be between NC State, NAU, Florida, BYU, and Oklahoma State, and individually it'll be the Parker Valby vs Katelyn Tuohy show, but Bama's girls will make it a race! On the men's side it'll be OSU and NAU going head to head! Gig'em and best of luck to Eric and the ladies!

Also my yearly post telling Pat Henry or the athletic department to pay me to write your articles

Maybe I assumed most people would read it on Friday! #journalism

The dept revenue that you would pay for your write-ups are being diverted elsewhere for the next eight years.

Looking forward to Jan 13---I am a horizontal jumps official and my colleagues and I had to seek work elsewhere last year. I went to Arkansas, LSU, Baylor, Ohio State, Albuquerque and Austin to get work and stay current...

I will go to some of those places in 2024 but it is nice to work at home too!

taylorswift13_ said:

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Add a foot to the Ags every jump

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He needed to go to Lubbock to get trained in that.

RACE DAY!!!

BUT WE GOT 30TH

We knew coming in to this race it was going to be extremely difficult to contend. This was a new experience for us. It's our first time at this meet as a team for the ladies in 23 years and only the third time in school history. We don't give out scholarships to distance runners anywhere close to the amount these other schools do. Albeit Arkansas and Florida in the new NIL world, none of these other schools have the track program we do. Most schools at this meet allocate their scholarships towards distance runners and if you can tel by our roster we distribute heavily to sprinters and jumpers and even throwers on the girls side!

I know some of you don't like moral victories but getting to this meet is such an accomplishment for our program. But more importantly it was not only a reward for the hard work by our ladies all year, but it's a steppingstone for the future of this program. We will return 5 of the top 6 runners we have, we have added a Kenyan international recruit Debra Cherono who could possibly be top 25 in this race, we added one of the best distance prospects in Texas in Madison Peters who will be in our top 5. Having Maddie Livingston, Kennady Fontenot, Shewaye Johnson, and Emma Little back plus our additions and that's not saying we don't add another quality transfer or recruit, but our future of this program is trending upwards! The girls will remember this experience and we should to because we'll be back at this meet consistently I promise you! Next year we'll be back and we'll even be in the top 20 range mark my words!!

Our girls made history this year, but as one of the richest coaches in modern day who's now chilling on the couch while making $20,000 a day for the next 8 years said "WE AINT DONE YET"