LSC XC Championships Homepage
CANYON – The Tarleton men's and women's cross country teams will travel to Canyon this Saturday, Oct. 24, to compete in the 2009 Lone Star Conference Championships hosted by West Texas A&M. The men will run 8-kilometers while the women run a 6-kilometer course.
"We are ready to go," head cross country coach Pat Ponder said. "We have done everything that we in order to be prepared. We cannot get any more fitter than we are. So now, it all comes down to performing when it counts."
The Texans, ranked No. 17 in the nation and No. 3 in the south central region, head into the championships after collecting wins at both the Naimadu Classic (Abilene) and North Texas Cross Country Invitational (Denton). Tarleton began the season finishing fifth at the Missouri Southern Stampede in Joplin, Mo.
Jared McNeil leads all runners with the fastest times in both the four-mile (19:53.40) and 8-kilometer (24:35.12) runs. He won the men's individual title at UNT with a time of 25:19.00. Gerzain Valenzuela (24:35.93) and Westyn Rosilies (25:04.24) head into this weekend's meet with the second and third fastest times in the 8K.
The TexAnns most recent finish was a fourth-place finish at the Angelo State Blue & Gold Classic (San Angelo) last week. They also have a pair of fifth-place finishes (Abilene and Denton) heading into Saturday's championships.
Vanessa Elizondo leads the TexAnns with two top-ten finishes as she finished eighth overall in San Angelo, finishing the 5-kilometer course in 21:11.00. She placed ninth overall at UNT, another 5-kilometer course, with a time of 19:53.00. Rhyland Pettinger led the TexAnns in Abilene, finishing the 4-kilometer course with a time of 16:15.66.
"Both men and women, if everyone does their job, we'll be fine," Ponder said. "This is the conference meet and we cannot take any one or any team for granted. Everything that we can control, we've done."
The meet will take place at the WT Horse Center, south of Kimbrough Stadium, in Canyon. The women are scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m. with the men slated to start at 10:15 a.m.
