Cross Country: Neiva Places 15th at Texas A&M

DENTON, Texas – Victor Neiva broke the 24-minute barrier for the first time and finished in 15th place to lead UNT cross country Friday at the Arturo Barrios Invitational in College Station, Texas.

"Overall, it was pretty solid," UNT cross country coach Erik Stevens said. "I was really pleased with where we ended up time-wise. I think positioning-wise we can be a little bit better moving forward, but I think we can get there."

Neiva clocked a career-best 8K time of 23:41.3, his first time under 24 minutes, to take the 15th spot individually. Mason Garner followed in 60th place with a career-best time of 24:19.8, while Luke Canon placed 115th (personal-best 24:45.8), Jake Meyering finished 140th (personal-best 24:57.3), Alan Proenza took 166th (personal-best 25:09.3), Hardy Swann placed 234th (personal-best 25:44.1), and Aiden Kirkpatrick finished 278th (personal-best 26:12.3).

"As far as the times go, they were pretty impressive," Stevens said. "Up front with one under 24 (Neiva), that's always a big benchmark when you're starting to look at some elite-level talent. Everybody else coming into the low 24s that hadn't been there before and were maybe having a little bit of doubt creep in, I think they went and proved the point today to themselves. With the young guys having one under 25 and almost all there at 25, I'm excited for what we have ahead of us."

Aditi Silwal led the women's team with a 119th-place finish, recording a personal-best 6K time of 21:23.6. Trinity Trotter placed 134th with a personal-best time of 21:28.8, Tiblets Abreha clocked a personal-best time of 22:17.4 to take 215th, Miranda Vreeland finished 292nd with a time of 23:05.6, Marisa Jacober placed 342nd with a personal-best time of 23:51.1, and Amy Pritchard clocked a personal-best time of 24:08.6 to finish 354th.

"The majority of our women's team had personal bests, as well," Stevens said. "They adjusted to the 6K really well. It was basically like they were running 5K. The majority PR'd through 5K and were able to maintain that over the last thousand meters. I think they're looking strong. This one's going to be a really solid confidence boost for that group."

Next up for UNT is the American Athletic Conference Championship on Oct. 28 in Grimesland, N.C.

"I think we are in a solid spot," Stevens said. "Fitness-wise, we know exactly where we're at. I think we're going to start to feel as fresh as you can at this point in the season. We're really in a good state. Our mentalities are good. Our fitness is there now. We just have to do one or two more little things positioning-wise for the men. I think we can have a pretty solid performance at the conference meet."

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Players Mentioned

Tiblets Abreha

Luke Canon

Mason Garner

Marisa Jacober

Aiden Kirkpatrick

Jake Meyering

Victor Neiva

Amy Pritchard

Alan Proenza

Aditi Silwal

Hardy Swann

Trinity Trotter

Miranda Vreeland

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