The XC season is upon us with the XC roster up.

We'll host 4 XC meets this season, the first this Friday:
Aggie Opener 9/4
Aggie Invitational 9/26
SEC Championships 10/30
NCAA South Central Regional 11/13

The men and women are predicted to finish 8th in the SEC. In the South Central, we're ranked 7th on the men's side and 5th on the women's side.

The top 3 on the men's side should be Cameron Villarreal, Austin Wells and Alex Riba and the women's side Karis Jochen, Kelsie Warren, and Arin Rice. After that, it's a crap shoot to round out our top 7 on both sides. I think there are a couple on the guys side that can surprise.

Some good early results as the Aggie men finish with 6 of the top 12. More importantly, they have several guys running times near Ryan Miller who was our 4/5 runner last year. Villarreal, Riba, and Wells finish 1, 3, and 4.

Jochen, Warren and Rice finish 1,3, and 5 for the women. Rice is still building her XC base, but there is way too much separation in time between our 4 through 7 runners.

What about Katie Watson transfer from Texas. She is on the roster and seems to be a descent runner. She redshirted a couple of times. Was wondering if she in injured or coming off injury? She might be one of the potential 3-5th scores

She's been injured throughout her college career, so I'm guessing she's coming off an injury.

Indoor and outdoor schedule has just been posted. Extra week of rest for indoors before SECs, but if our Distance Medley Relay is competitive, I bet they run in a last chance meet. No Penn Relays this year.

Indoor Schedule
12/12/2015 Reveille Invitational College Station
1/8-9/2016 Texas A&M High School Classic College Station
1/15-16/2016 Texas A&M Team Invitational College Station
1/23/2016 Texas A&M Quadrangular College Station
1/29-30/2016 Razorback Invitational Fayetteville, Ark.
2/5-6/2016 Charlie Thomas Invitational College Station
2/26-27/2016 SEC Championships Fayetteville, Ark.
3/11-12/2016 NCAA Championships Birmingham, Ala.

Outdoor Schedule
3/18-19/2016 Baldy Castillo Invitational Tempe, Ariz.
3/24-26/2016 UTSA Invitational San Antonio, Texas
3/30-4/2/2016 Texas Relays Austin, Texas
4/8-9/2016 Sun Angel Classic Tempe, Ariz.
4/15-16/2016 UCLA (dual) Los Angeles, Calif.
4/22-23/2016 Michael Johnson Classic Waco, Texas
4/29-30/2016 LSU Invitational Baton Rouge, La.
5/12-14/2016 SEC Championships Tuscaloosa, Ala.
5/26-28/2016 NCAA West Preliminary Rounds Lawrence, Kan.
6/8-11/2016 NCAA Championships Eugene, Ore.

Interesting thing about skipping Penn Relays is that we are staying in the warmer climate. I wonder if Pat Henry has been concerned about running in the cold weather at Penn and potential injuries.

Good showing for the men finishing 4th with most of the top 10 teams in the South Central region competing - we had a ranking of 7th in the region.

6 A Wells 23:42.9
19 A Riba 24:17.4
23 J Uribe 24:24.7
32 C Farris 24:37.0
36 C Villarreal 24:40.4
43 A Murray 24:51.2
46 J Castellano 24:53.9

The women also finished 4th. We're ranked 5th in the region with 1st, 3rd, and 4th ranked teams not competing, so it seems like we didn't perform to standards, but it's hard to tell with some girls out sick. Congrats to Karis for winning!

1 K Jochen 20:05.0
17 A Rice 21:08.1
32 K Persyn 21:40.0
34 H Deakins 21:42.0
35 K Pia 21:42.1
37 K Tanner 21:43.9
43 D Norton 21:51.6

High school notes:
I've heard of one commit Ashton Hutcherson (distance/XC) of Flower Mound Marcus who visited last weekend.

From the high school part of the Aggie Invitational:

Julia Heymach started off her season in fine fashion with what should be a nation leading 16:42.1 over 5. Khayla Patel wasn't far behind with a 16:50 (#3 nationally). Abby Guidry also had a good time of 17:23 (#9 nationally)

3 top 20 times were turned in on the boys side:
Harry Bellow Humble Kingwood 15:05.4
Devin Fahey Houston Stratford 15:11.5
David Zavala Houston Langham Creek 15:12

Hopefully, the kids like the course and want to run for us. :-)

'15-'16 track schedule looks pretty interesting! Couple of quick observations:

1. Looks like the Aggies will continue to showcase their indoor facilities with a number of home meets that always highlight the sport.

2. The dual with UCLA should be a goody! Glad to see they are running at least one dual meet (college track needs more of them!!) and it will be a great trip for the kids.

3. Wonder if they will schedule another meet after the Charley Thomas Inv....3 weeks is a long time before SEC's.

4. WOW! No Penn. Mixed feelings about this one. Weather often cold and wet and not always conducive to good running, jumping, and throwing. In addition because the meet is conducted like clockwork athletes often must stand around without sweats on before they race which adds to the risk off injuries. With conference championships just 2 weeks after this meet I can understand the coaches reluctance to compete there. Penn will miss the College Station contingent (particularly in the sprint events) and since they are going to Baton Rouge that weekend, no LSU either. Penn offered the kids the opportunity to perform before 40,000 plus spectators on Saturday alone!...they won't see that kind of crowd anywhere else. Also good recruiting opportunities (especially large Jamaican contingent) will be lost.

Mixed bag for the weekend. Karis Jochen finished 15th against a tough field and is having an All-American type season like Grace and Hilary last yr. However, the women finished 16th (with fellow South Central region competitor SMU finishing 13th). Kelsie Warren DNFed the race. Don't know if she re-aggravated her injury or was just trying to get a competitive mile in. If she's healthy, we can challenge SMU for 3rd in the region.


15 Jochen, Karis Texas A&M 16:55.0
86 Rice, Arin Texas A&M 17:49.1
91 Deakins, Haley Texas A&M 17:53.3
130 Persyn, Kelsey Texas A&M 18:19.4
143 Craig, Laura Texas A&M 18:29.3
144 Pia, Katie Texas A&M 18:30.5
146 Norton, Devin Texas A&M 18:34.0
154 Campbell, Hannah Texas A&M 18:46.2

Cameron Villarreal turned in a strong performance finishing 7th - he was sick last week. Austin Wells and Alex Riba continued their strong seasons with top 50 performance as the men finished 7th.

7 Villarreal, Cameron Texas A&M 23:58.0
32 Wells, Austin Texas A&M 24:25.6
43 Riba, Alex Texas A&M 24:36.5
60 Farris, Christian Texas A&M 24:46.7
77 Teel, Ryan Texas A&M 24:54.2
122 Uribe, Juan Texas A&M 25:22.8
123 Stoeber, Colin Texas A&M 25:24.1
155 Perry, Jacob Texas A&M 26:16.6
166 Cannel, Eli Texas A&M 27:07.8

Three weeks is a long time but with all the young sprinters on the women's side we could use some extra rest. I'm pretty sure we'll go somewhere for a last chance meet before SECs. I think our men's DMR can score points indoors if Brazier anchors - I don't think any of the milers have as good a kick as he does.

I loved the exposure they got competing at Penn but finals start the next week, so missing 4 or 5 days right before finals isn't ideal.

Reckon it's a little bit about freshening up as well. We've had the same routine for years. Time for change.

Men and women both won the HBU Invite with their B team.

1. Katie Watson, 18:47.51
2. Lauren Fontana, 19:03.54
4. Valerie Bradley, 19:11.41
6. Shelby McNeel, 19:20.10
7. Emily Bandy, 19:27.57

2. Elliott Farris, 20:26.36
6. Jacob Perry, 20:49.36
7. Aaron Murray, 20:52.11
8. Eli Canal, 20:57.69
9. Zach Martin, 21:03.67

Great overall effort for the men. With Villarreal (5th) leading the way, we finished 2nd as a team, the top SEC team by far. I can see them competing for 3rd at SECs.

5 Cameron Villarreal Texas A&M 24:28.56
15 Austin Wells Texas A&M 24:55.37
17 Alex Riba Texas A&M 25:00.63
28 Christian Farris Texas A&M 25:23.03
30 Juan Uribe Texas A&M 25:29.33
38 Ryan Teel Texas A&M 25:34.19
42 Colin Stoeber Texas A&M 25:41.57
57 Elliott Farris Texas A&M 25:52.82
93 Aaron Murray Texas A&M 26:22.63

Great showing for Karis Jochen at the Crimson Classic! Another 1st place for her. The women finished 5th with Bama, Auburn, and Ole Miss finishing ahead of them. Looks like Auburn and Ole Miss are much better than last year.

1 Karis Jochen Texas A&M 16:46.23
18 Arin Rice Texas A&M 17:35.32
43 Kelsey Persyn Texas A&M 18:04.10
54 Katie Watson Texas A&M 18:11.32
64 Haley Deakins Texas A&M 18:16.48
71 Katie Pia Texas A&M 18:22.36
86 Lauren Fontana Texas A&M 18:40.01
89 Laura Craig Texas A&M 18:40.98
90 Emily Willingham Texas A&M 18:42.16
100 Hannah Campbell Texas A&M 18:48.57
133 Kaitlin Tanner Texas A&M 19:13.24


We're hosting the conference meet in 2 weeks so come out and support the guys and gals. The results pretty much reflect our top 7 for SECs and regionals on each side except for Kelsie Warren is our #2 if healthy.

Out at the Watts XC course - Riba and Wells in the lead pack. Lot of Ark and Miss up front.

Villarreal moves up to join Wells and Riba in the top 15 or so. Teel and Farris further back. A&M solidly 3rd as a team

Looks the men finished 2nd. Villarreal ith, Riba 13th, Wells 14th, C Farris 23rd and Teel or Stoeber 41st.

Karis in the lead pack in 3rd. The rest of the ladies are stretched until like 50 back. We look we'll finish 8th. Around 2k left

thanks for the updates. Please let us know how Karis finishes.

Karis finished 5th and the team finished 9th.

Awesome job by the men's team today!

Not going to make it out tomorrow the South Central Region meet, but head out to Watts XC course to support the men and women at 10 and 11. Looking forward to big performances from the Karis and the men's team.

Karis is going to nationals after a 4th place finish. The men had a great showing finishing 3rd as a team and 6 runners in the top 30ish. I think they'll get an at large bid to nationals.

I was able to walk the entire course today during the races. Interesting how the course has different paths and turns to accommodate a range of distances. Well designed.
That would be great for the men to get an at large bid. How many are there?
And kudos to Karis for leading a good part of the race. So happy she is going to Nationals

There are 18 autobids (top 2 at each region) and 13 at large teams.

Letsrun.com does not project the Ags to get an at large bid...hope they are wrong...NCAA will post list this afternoon.

Men didn't get an at large bid. Probably, it was a mistake to go to Alabama for the Crimson Classic since we face a lot of those teams at SEC. We would have been better served to go out west to try and get some head to head wins against some west and mountain region teams.

An article came out about SEC teams missing the Penn Relays.

http://trackandfieldnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2673

You should be able to watch Karis run on the NCAA live stream at 11am.

http://www.ncaa.com/championships

Karis finishes 36th to earn All-American status!

Brazier looked really good in the mile (4:07). Looked like he had a lot left in the tank.

Fray had a fast 1000m, 2:50. Wyatt and Stevens look really good for this early in the season. Worried about the men's short sprints.

Pre-season indoor track and field rankinsg are out.

Men
Top five

Florida
Texas
Oregon
Virginia Tech
Alabama

A&M men are 9th

http://www.ustfccca.org/2016/01/featured/florida-men-top-preseason-indoor-track-field-national-rankings

Women

Top Five
Arkansas
Georgia
Texas
Kansas State
Oregon

A&M women are 21st in the pre-season indoor ranking

http://www.ustfccca.org/2016/01/featured/arkansas-women-lead-sec-heavy-preseason-indoor-track-field-national-rankings

If we're successful in the jumps (LJ, TJ, PV) on the men's side, we'll have a good season both indoors and out. Less pressure on our young guys to have to produce.

I expect the women to move up, but we're putting a lot of pressure on those young sprinters. Shelbi will do great in the discus when outdoors comes around, but we need to find non-sprint points, most likely WT, PV or the 5k/10k, to be competitive.

We need some short hurdlers. Didn't qualify anyone for the finals. The short sprints on the men's side needs work. Jenkins looks like the only one a shot at getting points at SECs.

Lindon Victor has looked good in the LJ. Just needs to improve in the HJ and PV and he'll be a point scorer.