
Mean Green See Improvement in College Station
10/19/2019 11:22:00 AM | Cross Country
COLLEGE STATION, Texas – North Texas cross country continued its season Saturday at the second annual Arturo Barrios Invitational hosted by Texas A&M at the Dale Watts Cross Country Course. The men finished 15th as a team in the 8K while the women finished 21st in the 6K.
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Both teams improved on their finishes from the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival two weeks ago.
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"It was a solid day for both teams," head coach Kevin Williams said. "I think we had a nice improvement from two weeks ago, we're still really young on both sides but they did a great job in a competitive field."
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The Mean Green men sat in second place as a team at the 2K split with four runners in the top-30 individually but would have just two runners in the top-50 at the finish line.
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Senior Florian Lussy, running in his second meet of the season finished eighth individually with a time of 23:53.3. He was followed by sophomore Caleb Bouchard in 28th (24:26.4), freshmen Braden Lange in 80th (25:18.6), Spencer Boykin in 128th (26:00.0), Riley Wood in 130th (26:00.5) and Mason Garner in 148th (26:14.8).
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"Florian is really coming along quickly," Williams said. "He still has a little ways to go in fitness but with another two weeks to prepare he will be a lot better."
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Fellow Conference USA school Middle Tennessee took the men's title with 41 points while North Texas tallied 353.
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North Texas' women improved from their 22nd place team finish at the Chile Pepper two weeks ago by placing 21st as a team Saturday in College Station.
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Sophomore Aubrey Schmidt, running in her hometown led the way for the women for the fourth straight meet by finishing 84th individually with a time of 22:13.3.
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"Aubrey had another great race for us this weekend," Williams added. "She ran a minute and a half faster than she did at this same meet last year. She's been a great leader in bringing the freshmen along."
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Schmidt was followed at the finish line by senior Jennifer White in 112th (22:29.5), graduate Baylee Nelson in 125th (22:37.9), junior Gwyneth Garcia in 132nd (22:45.5), freshmen Erika Barrett in 169th (23:23.7), Laurynn Hogan in 202nd (24:07.6), Arianna Gonzales in 204th (24:10.2), Madelyn Taylor in 211th (24:31.5), senior Darrian Johnson in 216th (24:39.9), and freshman Katie Booth in 223rd (24:58.5).
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Barrett, Hogan, Gonzales, Taylor and Booth were all running in the first 6K of their collegiate careers.
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California Baptist took the women's title with 75 points while the Mean Green women tallied 559 points.
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North Texas will be back in action when they head to Bowling Green, Kentucky for the 2019 Conference USA Cross Country Championships on November 2.
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"Conference is going to be very tough as always," Williams said. "But if we can get lucky with some health in a few spots I think we can keep improving these next two weeks."
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