Texas State Men’s Cross Country Achieves First-Ever Top 10 Regional Ranking
NEW ORLEANS – Monday morning saw the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) released the first regional rankings during the season. Coming in eighth in the South Central Region was the Texas State men’s cross country after two strong showing the past two weekends. It is the first time in program history that the Bobcats have achieved a top 10 spot.
Texas State opened the year with a second place finish at the Baylor Twilight Invitational. The top five runners for the Bobcats all finished within 10.2 seconds of each other, the closest among all the teams. Four straight runners crossed the finish line to record top 10 times led by Jose Angel Gonzalez in sixth. He was followed immediately by Joseph Meade, Kyle Denomme and Logan Pittdman.
Competing against a field that featured seven regionally ranked teams on Friday at the Justin Cooper Invitational hosted by Rice, Texas State came away with the meet title. Gonzalez paced the Bobcats with a career best time of 19:00.10 on the 6K course for a fourth place finish out of 137 runners. Denomme (16th), Meade (25th) and Pittdman (21st) all posted top 25 finishes as well.
The South Central Region is one of the toughest in the nation consisting of teams from the states of Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. Texas State is one of three Sun Belt Conference schools in the rankings this week along with UL Lafayette and UT Arlington.
Against regional teams in the first two meets, Texas State posted an 11-1 record. The Bobcats’ .917 winning percentage was the highest in the region while the 11 victories were the second most by any team.
Texas State next competes at the Cowboy Jamboree hosted by Oklahoma State on Saturday, September 24.
For the latest on Texas State cross country/track & field, visit the official website of Texas State Athletics at www.txstatebobcats.com and follow the team on Twitter at @TxStateTrack.
USTFCCCA Release: http://www.ustfccca.org/2016/09/featured/first-regular-season-regional-rankings-announced-for-ncaa-di-mens-xc
Regional Rankings: http://www.ustfccca.org/assets/rankings/div1/2016-xc/DI_2016_Wk1_XC_Regional-Summary.pdf
