The Aggie men's and women's cross country teams opened with solid wins at the TAMU Invitational. Tommy Bonn and Brian McKinstry finished 1-2 in the men's race.

That's great! It looks like moving the date up paid off.

Well, the reason they moved the date up is to run the other meets on the schedule. It wasn't really so they could "win" the meet. This was more of a test to see where the team is, and get the younger kids some race experience. I was very impressed with how well Brian McKinstry ran. He is a true sophomore with a lot of talent. I'm glad to see the team run well now, but don't forget - when are we gonna run fast...November.

I was talking to a high school coach at the meet and he was saying "Can you believe they're having the girls run the 5,000?"

I explained to him how nice it must be for Coach Hartman to be able to watch most of the good Texas recruits run at the collegiate distance right in front of him and then have them in for their official visit.

I'm still wondering why some of the very good hs girls ran the 3,200 meter race instead of the 5k.

Oh, back to A&M...They're looking pretty solid. Not as relatively strong as The Woodlands High School boys team was in their race, but both the men and women look like they have an NCAA meet in the near future (1-2 years).

Oh...Trackboy, is your first name Brad?

Edit: The only reason I asked is because you seem to act like a sports info director.



[This message has been edited by Aggietom (edited 9/23/2003 11:51p).]

I was impressed with the top four of the men's team. I don't know if any A&M team has ever had four guys that can win a race on any given day. And the team's depth is impressive too. Just making the travel squad is going to be competitive.

If the national voters were paying attention, I'd expect the Aggies to move into the national rankings.

Well, I don't think they will be in the rankings unless someone ran really poorly in the top 25. The guys did run well, but they didn't beat anyone. Look for the Great American Festival to provide better competition, and a chance to get in the national rankings. Remember, A&M will run fast in November, when it matters. This is just the preseason.

They need to update this site. I'm pretty sure the mondo polls are from this year, but they say 2002. If so, the men are ranked 30th right now. Good call trackboy.


http://www.usccca.org/

[This message has been edited by cdonlee (edited 9/23/2003 12:45p).]

[This message has been edited by cdonlee (edited 9/23/2003 12:47p).]

Anyway, I know it isn't college, but I'm betting TWHS takes the boy's title if they make the trip this year. I'm almost positive they are going again.

OK..I'll show my lack of High School Knowledge.
What school is TWHS? What boys title will they win? If they make the trip where?

The Woodlands High School, The Woodlands, Texas.

If they make the trip to the Great American XC Festival in North Carolina.

They're really good this year. They should have a shot at winning.

AggieTom--

I was re-reading one of your earlier posts regarding the Aggies' going to "future" NCAA meets. After what I saw last week from the men's team, I'd be disappointed if they didn't go this year.

I really think this is the best men's team we've fielded in a long, long time. I'm hopeful that they can knock off a few ranked teams today at the Great American.

Well, it looks like we beat Duke (27), but Virginia (RV) beat us. We may move up or down a little but pretty much stay where we are. How about Tommy Bonn getting 3rd. That's awesome. Solid performance from the rest of the crew too. Things are looking good for the year and Nats.

edit: I just saw that we beat NC State (14) and Butler (22) too. We are moving up in the rankings.



[This message has been edited by cdonlee (edited 9/26/2003 5:19p).]

[This message has been edited by cdonlee (edited 9/26/2003 5:21p).]

Tommy Bonn is turning out to be quite a runner. I know he came in as a highly touted mile prospect, but 3rd at that sort of meet is quite good.

Oh...I didn't mean to say we wouldn't make this year's meet, but I'm not willing to say it is a shoe-in unless we are supposed to challenge for the team title (which we're not). I've seen the 2nd best team not make the NCAA meet because someone snuck in and beat them quite a few times. District does that to some teams...

Anyway, I think we're good to go on a roll of NCAA appearances here. That's really what I meant by my statement. I don't think we'll contend anytime soon, though, unless we land another big-time runner (like a Erik Stanley/Steve Magness sort or a Calandra Stewart on the female side). Our depth is great, but we need another high scorer.





[This message has been edited by Aggietom (edited 9/27/2003 7:06p).]

OK...So I was right. The Woodlands kicked ass at the meet and won it with 99 points to 162 for the second place team. They are actually starting to look like one of the strongest Texas teams in the last decade (up there with the mid-90's Kingwood teams).

I was wondering how a team like this comes about. It turns out they supposedly are as deep as a collegiate roster is. I found on txrunning that they reportedly had 16 men who could break 10:00 in the 3,200 last year. Incredible.

Clearly, the success by The Woodlands HS is related to the large concentration of Kenyans masquerading as suburbanites in the area.

Aggietom, Tommy was a great miler and cross country runner coming out of high school. I think he wsa 4th nationally in the mile and finished something like 18th at the National High School XC meet. He also won every meet he was in his senior year except the state meet, pre-nationals and nationals. On a high school note I know The Wood's a great team, but how are the Lockhart boys(the other XC dynasty of Texas)?

I do not consider Lockhart to be a XC dynasty. The Woodlands? yes. Kingwood? yes.

Lockhart was the first team to beat both of these schools in 10 years back in '98. In the last 15 years they've won district 15 times, regionals 6 times, and have medaled 5 times at state winning first twice. They've done this with one of the lower enrollments in 4A. Maybe I jumped the gun on the dynasty, but if you look at teams the past 15 years you'll see that behind Kingwood and The Woodlands is Lockhart with a total enrollment probably 1/4 the size of the 2 former schools.

Dynasty or not, I think it's pretty amazing what Lockhart has traditionally accomplished with its distance program. Speaking of cross country dynasties, how about those mighty Greyhounds of Boerne HS? OK, I might be biased about the Hounds.

By the way, the latest installment of the Katherine King Player Diary is up on AggieAthletics.com. From it I learned that cross country runners eat a lot and Jayme D'Agnolo is pretty dang tough...

I have to agree with dubag on this one. I would consider Lockhart to be THE dynasty of the 4A ranks, and one of the state dynasties. It is absolutely amazing what Coach Hippensteel has done with that program, espicially considering the size of Lockhart. They are consistently at the top of the state, and even cracked the National Top 10 a few years back.

Well, maybe Lockhart is pretty good. I never followed the program that closely. I new they were good, but I never thought of them as a dynasty.