Cross Country Teams Shine At Chile Pepper Festival

Next up for the Bobcats is the Sun Belt Conference Championships on Saturday, Oct. 28 in Boone, North Carolina.

Fayetteville, Ark. – Both the men’s and women’s Texas State cross country teams put together strong performances to conclude the regular season at the Chile Pepper Festival that was ran at Agri Park.

The men finished third overall out of 40 teams, the women claimed 10th place and both squads were top finishers among Sun Belt Conference teams.

Joseph Meade came through the one-mile check point of the 10K race in 47th place. He improved 35 positions from then until the finish line to finish 12th with a personal best time of 30:30.6. His time was also the second fastest in Bobcat history at the distance.

Nearly claiming a top 20 finish was Logan Pittdman, but was edged out by half a second. The senior completed the race in 30:47.3, a personal best and third fastest in program history.

Claiming the fourth fastest time by a Bobcat at the distance was Jose Angel Gonzalez. He crossed the finish line with a personal best time of 31:01.4 to finish in 33rd place.

Noe Belamres, Jr. just missed adding his name to the TXST top 10 list. The senior recorded a time of 31:59.0 to place 63rd out of 330 runners.

At the mile check point it did not appear that he would wasn’t going to crack the top 100, clocking in at 163rd place. The Eagle Lake, Texas native made a 57 position jump at the 5.5K check point before moving up another 43 spots between there and the finish line.

Also making a big jump between the first check point and the finish line was Jordan Janer. He was 159th at the mile mark before improving 84 positions to finish 75th in 32:09.1.

The women’s team saw its top five runners all claim top 100 finishes with a 40 second split between the first and fifth runner.

Posting the ninth fastest time at the distance was Nikki Sanchez with a mark of 18:10.1. Her 51st place finish was the best on the team. The senior made a 40 position drop from one-mile check point.

McKynzie King missed the recording the 10 best time in school history at 18:14.1 to claim 55th place. Coming in at 18:21.8 and eight spots behind King was Devina Schneider. 

A 47-position improvement from the check point saw Kendra Long claim a 69th place finish. She crossed the finish line in 18:27.4.

Rounding out the top five runners for TXST was Madilyn King. The sophomore crossed the line in 18:50.4 to finish 100th out of 381 runners.

Next up for the Bobcats is the Sun Belt Conference Championships on Saturday, Oct. 28 in Boone, North Carolina.

Men’s Results: http://txstatebobcats.com/documents/2017/9/30/Men_27s_Collegiate_10K.pdf

Women’s Results: http://txstatebobcats.com/documents/2017/9/30/Women_27s_Collegiate_5K.pdf