University of North Texas Athletics
University of North Texas
Arturo Barrios Invite
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.
Both teams improved on their finishes from the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival two weeks ago.
"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."
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.
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).
"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."
Fellow Conference USA school Middle Tennessee took the men's title with 41 points while North Texas tallied 353.
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.
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.
"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."
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).
Barrett, Hogan, Gonzales, Taylor and Booth were all running in the first 6K of their collegiate careers.
California Baptist took the women's title with 75 points while the Mean Green women tallied 559 points.
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.
"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."
