COLLEGE STATION, Texas — Texas A&M’s Eric Casarez won the men’s 8k title setting a Gans Creek Cross Country course record, while the women’s team claimed the 6k team title Friday at the Gans Creek Classic.
Continuing his hot streak, Casarez blazed the field of nearly 200 runners winning by 17 seconds to cross the finish line at 23:36.5. He claimed his third individual title in as many races entered this season. Casarez bettered the Gans Creek Course record by 18 seconds, marking the second consecutive week he etched his name to a course record. The speedster won the Texas A&M Invitational breaking the Dale Watts Course record at 23:04.0.
Momentum for the Maroon & White carried into the women’s race. Julia Black and Gemma Goddard recorded top-10 finishes to lead the Aggies to an overall team score of 64 points defeating runner-up Missouri by three points. The victory marked the team’s third straight title.
Running in 17th place at the 4,000m mark, Black split 3:34.7 over the next 1,000m to jump in the standings to seventh. The Keller, Texas, native continued to zoom past competitors splitting 3:25.5 over the last 1,000m to place fourth overall at 21:17.2. It marked the second top-5 finish for the senior and third top-10 finish on the season.
Goddard followed with a sixth place finish at 21:17.3. The freshman led the Aggies a majority of the race after making her move around the 2,500m mark jumping from 23rd to 11th. The Austin, Texas, native continued to move up the standings before finishing the race with a 3:30.1 final split to record her third career top-10 finish.
Abbey Santoro, Maddie Livingston and Grace Plain each recorded top-25 finishes to score valuable points for Texas A&M. Santoro clocked 21:27.1 to finish 13th, followed by Livingston at 18th with a time of 21:31.7 and Plain 23rd overall at 21:37.6.
The men’s team finished seventh with 157 points. Following Casarez individual title, Joseph Benn, Colton Colonna, Gavin Hoffpauir and Brady Grant each scored points for the Maroon & White. Benn placed 29th (24:42.7), Colonna 37th (24:51.8), Hoffpauir 45th (24:57.8) and Grant 49th (25:01.4).
Next Up
Texas A&M returns to the Brazos Valley to host the annual Arturo Barrios Invitational on Oct. 16 at the Dale Watts Cross Country Course.
Texas A&M Quotes
Distance Coach Wendel McRaven:
on the women’s team…
"I'm really pleased with the women winning and how they all ran. Starting the season, I would have never guessed that we would be three-for-three in wins. They have really worked hard on the culture of the team. That's really a testament to them, a testament to our upperclassmen and their leadership and bringing in this freshman group that all come in with positive attitudes and are excited about being part of a team. That's fun. Regardless of the team score, I'm really proud of that. The team result is a byproduct of the other stuff they have been doing."
on Eric Casarez…
"Eric [Casarez] is just running at a different level right now. Breaking the course record at home last week and breaking this course this week is really impressive. The course was soft, it was warm and muggy out there."
on the men’s team
"Today was a teachable moment for the men's team. They lost sight of each other and were kind of out there on their own and we're just not at the point where we can do that. Our strength is a group of guys that really run close together as a team, they'll get better at it. We're a lot better today. We got beat by some good teams, we learned some valuable lessons and we'll be better in two weeks."
Senior Julia Black:
on the race plan…
"Overall, we did exactly what Coach McRaven said. We were calm in the first 3k, don't get too crazy in the beginning. Then we just race hard at the end. The teams that finished well in the men's race were the ones that finished the race well. That was kind of in the back of my mind the whole time, stay calm in the first 3k and then get to work in the second 3k."
on Freshman Gemma Goddard…
"Gemma [Goddard] had a great race. It was good to see her racing like that. Honestly, she pushed me so much and we were really able to work together at the end to pass a lot of people. I saw her ahead of me, she pulled me along. I caught up to her and then I pulled her along. That's what it's like to race with teammates, you pull each other along and you can pass a lot of people along the way."
on running against Mizzou and racing on the SEC Championships course…
"Mizzou is a great team. We race against them often and they are great competitors. To see the course that conference will be on and race against a good team in the conference and beat them was a great thing to take away from today. I think we're all really excited for that and we are able to take this high into our next home meet and the SEC Championships."
Junior Eric Casarez:
on the travel week and men’s team:
"It was a short travel week and I think everyone was a little tired, maybe a little sluggish. I know Tuesday everyone was feeling it from the short week. This is where it mentally gets hard for a lot of people. This is where you gotta be the strongest you can be. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best day for the team but it's only up from here and we look to fix the mistakes going into SEC Championships."
on his confidence and racing as the underdog:
"I'm feeling super confident and I'm racing with a chip on my shoulder. I'm glad that my teammates are part of this journey. I'm here to make some noise, not just at SEC Championships but at NCAAs too. I really want to get my name out there, I know I'm kind of flying under the radar and not a lot of people know who I am. I like being the underdog in races and I just want to keep proving people wrong."
