Men's Results l Women's Results

COLLEGE STATION – In a field that included 439 runners from 55 teams, including 10 in the national rankings and 30 in regional rankings, freshman Abraham Chirchir finished fifth in the 8k to lead The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) men's cross country team to a fifth place finish while freshman Mercy Chelangat came in 10^th in the 6k with a program record run to lead the women's team to a 10^th place finish on Saturday at the Arturo Barrios Invitational, hosted by Texas A&M, at the Dale Watts Cross Country Course.
 
UTRGV earned all six available points in the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union, as Texas A&M-Corpus Christi finished 22^ndon the men's side and 16^thon the women's side. UTRGV now leads Corpus Christi 14.5-1.5 in the showdown standings.
 
Chirchir finished with a time of 24:26.2, the fourth-best time in program history.
 
Chelangat shattered the program record by finishing in a time of 20:53.9, 21.6 seconds faster than the previous record of 21:15.5 set by Judith Chumba in 2012. Senior Los Fresnos alum Jennifer Zapata also entered the record books, finishing in 38^thwith a time of 21:48.7, the eighth best mark in program history.
 
As a team, the UTRGV men, the No. 11 ranked team in the South Central Region, finished with 231 points, behind only Guelph, the No. 1 ranked team in Canada (56 points), No. 24 Oklahoma State (93 points), (RV) Texas (98 points) and (RV) Tennessee (113 points). UTRGV finished ahead of one nationally ranked team, No. 28 Middle Tennessee State, and 11 regionally ranked opponents, including No. 3 Texas A&M, No. 6 UT Arlington, No. 8 North Texas, No. 11 Florida, No. 4 Rice, No. 14 Stephen F. Austin, No. 14 Vanderbilt, No. 14 Texas Tech, No. 10 McNeese State, No. 12 Louisiana and No. 9 Corpus Christi.
 
The UTRGV women, the No. 10 ranked team in the South Central Region, finished with 277 points, behind competition that included Guelph, the No. 2 ranked team in Canada (238 points), No. 29 Oklahoma State (85 points), (RV) Texas (156 points) and (RV) SMU (249 points). UTRGV finished ahead of seven regionally ranked opponents including No. 4 Texas A&M, No. 5 TCU, No. 7 Texas State, No. 12 Mississippi State, No. 14 Corpus Christi, No. 9 Baylor and No. 15 UTSA.
 
UTRGV is back in action on Oct. 27 at the WAC Championships hosted by Seattle U. The women compete in the 6k starting at 12 p.m. while the men follow with an 8k at 1 p.m. 
 
The next events of the South Texas Showdown, presented by Navy Army Community Credit Union, are on Nov. 12 when women's basketball hosts Corpus Christi and men's basketball visits Corpus Christi at 7 p.m.
 
UTRGV Women's Cross Country Results (6k)

Place	Runner	Time
10.	Mercy Chelangat	20:53.9
38.	Jennifer Zapata	21:48.7
61.	Dorcas Koech	22:13.0
81.	Alma Villanueva	22:34.7
97.	Anahi Romo	22:46.6
118.	Bryana Rios	23:03.4
147.	Monica Rivera	23:39.0
158.	Thalia Polanco	23:37.5

 
UTRGV Men's Cross Country Results (8k)

Place	Runner	Time
5.	Abraham Chirchir	24:26.2
36.	Omer Almog	25:20.5
57.	Alexandre Moret	25:40.2
60.	Juan Manzano	25:44.0
75.	Ricardo Mendoza	25:54.2
80.	Brian Yanez	25:59.4
108.	Mathew Peynado	26:21.4
120.	Tristan Pena	26:35.1
137.	Jose Serna	26:46.9
151.	Antoine Godin	27:06.6
175.	Fernando Escobar	27:45.2
193.	Isaac Arevalo	28:12.3

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