The men and women's cross country team kicked off the season at the Southwestern Pirate Opener with a win on the men's side in it's first meet in school history. Due to a course direction mishap, the women's teams scores were not counted. The meet included other schools such as Southwestern, Concordia, Hardin Simmons, Mcmurry, and Schreiner.
The men were lead with a 1st and 2nd place tie finish by Alex De La Maza and MIchael Skinner. De La Maza and Skinner both ran a time of 16:41 for the 5k distance (5:22 per mile). The rest of the Celt crew did an awesome job placing 8th (Armando Hernandez), 10th (Joel Garza), 16th (Juan Gonzales), 18th (Elliott Smith - unattached), 26th (Alex Guevara), and 31st (Antonio Mata).
The men averaged a time of 17:27 per 5k (5:36/mile) and finished with a score of 36 points total.
On the women's side, the Celts were lead by Abby Ringen who finished in 2nd place with a time of 20:48. Unfortunately, there was a mishap on the course and all of the runners after the 3rd place runner took an early turn on the course. This led to the women's times being thrown out and just keeping the places of the runners the same after the top 3. Unnofically, the 2nd team finisher for UST was Venice Maccawili, followed by Alexandria Gonzales, Fatima Mancia, and Maricela Hernandez.
"The plan for the meet was to run controlled the first 2 miles of the race and then open it up the last mile. The team did exactly as asked, and I am very pleased with where we are at this time of the season. As a younger team, we have to make it an emphasis to run smarter than the other teams. If you work hard and plan well, the team that is more talented can be beaten in this sport" says Coach Dohner.
Moving forward, the team will compete next Friday, Sept. 7th at the Rice Invitational against some of the best teams in the state.
