XC: Silwal, Proenza Lead the Way for Mean Green

DENTON, Texas – Freshmen Aditi Silwal and Alan Proenza set the pace for UNT cross country with matching 23rd-place finishes Friday in the season opener at the John McKenzie Invitational in Fort Worth, Texas.

"Overall, I thought it was a solid day for what we put together," UNT cross country coach Erik Stevens said. "Everybody executed their plan pretty well across the board. It gave me a good gauge as to where we're at, especially with the work we've been doing."

Silwal clocked a 5K time of 18:54.0 to lead the UNT women's team in 23rd place, followed by Miranda Vreeland in 26th place with a time of 19:02.9. Trinity Trotter placed 28th with a time of 19:05.4, Tiblets Abreha finished 36th with a time of 19:22.8, Amy Pritchard took 45th with a time of 20:13.0, and Marisa Jacober placed 47th with a time of 20:30.7.

"I'm really happy on the ladies' side with our returners," Stevens said. "I think they approached it a whole lot differently than what they did last year. I think they're confident coming off of their summer training. It's really our first summer together, and they're seeing how that's going to get them stronger moving forward. I'm especially happy with our young ladies today. With Aditi leading the pack at 18:54, right around what I thought she was capable of running today. Trinity had a big 40-second PB from her high school days. Our strength is showing through a little bit already. Once we get into the next phase and touch on some of those paces that we need to be focusing on more moving later into the season, we're going to see some big improvements."

For the men's team, Proenza set the bar with a 5K time of 15:41.80, finishing 23rd. Hardy Swann took 33rd with a time of 16:02.60, Jake Johnson placed 41st with a time of 16:16.50, Aiden Kirkpatrick finished 48th with a time of 16:35.70, and Landin Wolfe placed 49th with a time of 16:35.80.

"On the men's side, Alan executed perfectly," Stevens said. "He did everything that I needed him to do today. Hardy will be there. I'm pretty confident in the young group of guys. I'm really excited to be able to plug those young guys in with the veteran guys coming back. Those guys are having a really solid training block so far. Once we get them all plugged in together, it's going to be exciting for us to see how they work together.

The Mean Green women's team finished fourth as a team, while the men's team placed sixth at AP Ranch Championship Cross Country Course.

Next up for UNT is the UTA Gerald Richey Invitational next Saturday (Sept. 9) in Arlington, Texas.

"Moving into next week, it'll be a limited group of people racing," Stevens said. "We'll have a few of the men doubling back from this weekend. I'll put a little bit of a different race plan in place next week to work on a few other things that we didn't work on this week. The ladies will be off next week, so we'll hopefully be getting a few more bodies healthy to be able to come back at A&M and roll as a crew there."

Be sure to keep an eye on MeanGreenSports.com, follow Mean Green Sports on social media @MeanGreenSports and Mean Green track & field/cross country at @MeanGreenTFXC for all of the latest information.

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Players Mentioned

Tiblets Abreha

Marisa Jacober

Jake Johnson

Aiden Kirkpatrick

Amy Pritchard

Alan Proenza

Aditi Silwal

Hardy Swann

Trinity Trotter

Miranda Vreeland

Landin Wolfe

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