The Blinn College men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Cowboy Stampede hosted by McNeese State University on Saturday in Lake Charles, La.
The Buccaneers were the lone NJCAA program amongst the 13 teams participating in the meet.
Blinn’s men’s team finished fifth out of six teams, while the Buccaneer women came in sixth out of seven squads.
“I was very pleased with the execution of today’s race,” Blinn head coach said. “Before our first meet, I told our teams it would take at least two competitions before we started seeing the final race results that we were expecting. This was the meet that I wanted to start putting an emphasis on getting the outcome we desired, and the athletes responded well. We are going to continue to refine our race execution over the next few weeks and I am expecting to continue to see improved performances.”
The University of Louisiana captured the team crown on the men’s side. Blinn outperformed NCAA Division I competitor Louisiana Tech University in the team standings, paced by an 18th-place finish for Eric Lagat. The sophomore completed the 4-mile run in 20 minutes, 30.80 seconds.
“Our top three men ran very well today,” Parker said. “I was impressed with the way Christian Gonzalez approached his race. He was more ambitious at the start of the race than he has been the past few weeks, and he ran with the lead group for a large portion of the race. However, this approach is what is necessary to compete at the highest levels and he has the ability to sustain that pace over the entire race with a few more weeks of development. He set a tone early in the race that the other guys responded well to.”
Gonzalez and Edward Rivera – both freshmen – claimed 20th and 22nd place in 20:38.40 and 20:43.40, respectively.
A total of 49 runners finished the men’s race.
“We had good racing conditions today and I wanted to take advantage of it by being more aggressive and running with the lead pack,” Gonzalez said. “Our training has been very good the past several weeks and that gave me confidence going into today. I think everyone responded well.”
Atop the women’s standings was Houston Christian University. Blinn finished one place ahead of NCAA DI program Northwestern State University in the 5-kilometer race.
Among 65 runners, freshman Clare White led the Bucs with a time of 20:09.67, good for 43rd place. Freshmen Mia Guillen (20:51.92), Juliana Jeansonne (20:59.37), Savanna Thaw (20:59.48), and Sophie Pyle (21:31.98) finished as a pack, taking 50th through 53rd, respectively.
“The women have really bought into a pack mentality, and the fact that each lady averaged a minute faster than they did at the Texas A&M Invitational reinforces that pack running is the strength of this team,” Parker said. “They executed a great race, they were more methodical in how they approached the first mile of the race than we were, and they were all much stronger over the last portion of the race than we had been in previous weeks.”
During the Texas A&M Invitational – Blinn’s first meet of the season – the Bucs averaged a time of 22:06. At the Cowboy Stampede, Blinn improved that combined time to 20:55.
“As a group we have all been improving each week,” White said. “Our workouts have been longer and faster, which paid off in today’s race. We had our top four girls under twenty-one minutes, which has been a goal the past few weeks. We are becoming tighter as a team and improving each week.”
Blinn continues its season when the Buccaneer men and women compete in the Old Glory Gallup hosted by Dallas Baptist University on Saturday, Oct. 5, in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 49 national championships since 1987.
