Oct. 15, 2005
The University of Texas - Pan American men's and women's cross country teams were both in action on Saturday (Oct. 15), with the men finishing 28th in the Pre-Nationals meet in Terre Haute, IN and the women finishing second at the Texas Lutheran Invitational in Seguin, TX.
For the men, they were led by senior Westly Keating (Pharr, TX/University of Texas) who finished in third place with a time of 23:43 in the 8k race, his third straight top-four finish of the season. Keating led much of the race but was overtaken late by eventual winner Josh Rohatinsky of BYU and Kip Kangogo from TCU.
"The first and second-place finishers let Wes set the pace and do all the work for most of the race and then just passed him late," said assistant coach Brian Cunningham.
Hector Gandara (Mission, TX/Pratt C.C.) was second for the Broncs, crossing the finish line in 24:52, good for 76th place. The Broncs three, four and five runners all finished towards the back of the pack.
"Overall, it was a very good effort by the top two, which I was very pleased with. I would have liked a better team finish. The three, four and five runners need to be more focused and perform better," stated Cunningham.
Stanford won the meet with 89 points and was followed by BYU, Georgetown, Kansas and Dartmouth rounding out the top five. The Broncs finished with 675 points.
The Lady Broncs were paced by Ashley Perez (Falfurrias, TX/Falfurrias H.S.) who placed fourth with a time of 24:00 in the 6k race. Perez's fourth-place finish marks the best finish of her career.
Karla Hernandez (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg H.S.) also recorded a career-best finish, crossing the line in seventh place with a time 24:13. Freshman Rose Escovedo (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg North H.S.) finished the race in 24:47, good for a 12th-place finish.
Sara Rodriguez (Pharr, TX/Valley View H.S.) finished in 16th with a time of 25:01, Sharon Toroitich (Eldama-Ravin, Kenya/Butler C.C.) in 20th, crossing the end-line in 25:14, and Lorraine Garcia (Laredo, TX/Nixon H.S.) in 24th with a time of 25:26.
Finishing ahead of the Lady Broncs was the University of Texas with 36 points. UTPA recorded 55 points, with Trinity, Southwestern and St. Mary's rounding out the top five behind them.
The UTPA men's and women's cross country teams will be in action again on Saturday (Oct. 29), competing in the Independent Championships hosted by Texas A&M - Corpus Christi.
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