GEORGETOWN, TX- Men's Cross Country toed the line with nine other schools for an 8k event hosted by Southwestern University.
This was a packed field for the race and Southwesten took full advantage of being able to run on their home course. Although, the previous Southwestern-Concordia Opener was just a 5k, so for the step up in distance and the rainfall would create its own set of challenges. The freshmen rose to the challenge and were able to help score the Pirates some valuable points. Brian Armijo led all Pirates with a 3rd place finish, in a time of 27:39, which is 5:33.7 mile pace. Not far behind him, Xavier Wines and Emilio crossed the finish line together and the Pirates ended up with four runners in the top ten.
Ultimately, this was just enough for the Pirates, who scored 43 total points, to walk away with a First Place Team overall! Concordia (Tex.) and McMurry tied for 44 points.
"We were fortunate that the Showdown attracted a strong group of D3 schools for us to compete against early in the season. A couple of these schools were much higher than us in the regional rankings last year, so to come out on top shows how far we've come and that our goal of being top 10 at the West Regional meet is realistic and achievable. The other positive of this race was the freshmen handling the 8k distance well overall. None of them went out too fast and blew up and a few of them excelled in the second half of the race passing a lot of other racers and ultimately making the difference for us in the final results. As always, there's still plenty of work to be done, but this was a great sign we are on the right path, not to mention how good it feels to win a meet at home," said Head Coach, Joe Sponsel.
Men's Top 5:
3) Brian Armijo, 27:39
4) Xavier Wines, 27:46.5
5) Emilio Salas, 27:46.5
10) Kevin Love, 28:16.4
21) Dominic Mashak, 29:23.6