BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Tarleton State Cross Country made a statement at the Texas A&M Invitational finishing fourth in the men's 8K ahead of several of the top teams in the NCAA South Central Region.
 
Headlined by three top-20 finishes, the men's squad finished fourth overall. The team finished in front of four South Central Regional top 15 teams: Tulane (#3), Sam Houston (#8), UT Arlington (#10) and North Texas (#12).
 
"I really liked how our men performed today," said distance coach Christopher Zent. "They ran against several very good, regionally-ranked programs and performed very well. They are starting to expect more out of themselves and are hungry for more success."
 
The women were led by a pair of top-40 finishers to lead the team to a 10^th place overall finish.
 
Jace Poole was the top finisher of the day for the Texans crossing 16^th in 24:02.8.
 
Men's
 
Poole led a trio of men to finish in the top 20 for the Texans. Poole paced the group finishing just ahead of Angel Gomez who earned 17^th place in 24:03.7. Angel Contreras rounded out the trio posting a 19^th overall finish crossing in 24:06.1.
 
Freshman Toby Eaton was the next to finish notching 23^rd in 24:19.3. The fifth and final scoring Texan to finish was Kellen Frickel. He recorded a 47^th place finish in 24:53.6.
 
Rounding out the squad for the Texans, Diego Flores finished in 53^rd (24:58.5), Kebede Kerlin crossed in 86^th (25:54.3) and AJ Alardo ended in 108^th in 26:47.6.
 
TCU took home the team title registering 36 points. Texas A&M earned second place just three points behind. Houston rounded out the top three with 99 points. Tarleton's 118 points came in fourth.
 
Tulane freshman Bernard Cheruiyot won the individual title and set a new course record in 22:50.3.
 
Women's
 
The duo of Sage Lancaster and Morgan Lamberson led the Texan pack for the second-straight meet. Nearly the entire squad posted personal career bests in the event. Lancaster finished in 37^th in a career-best 18:18.7, dropping her time by nearly 20 seconds from a season ago. Lamberson earned 39^th place posting a personal best time of 18:23.8. She improved from her previous best by 15 seconds from last year at the Chili Pepper Festival.
 
"On the women's side, they improved on both their performance from the first meet of the season and from this event last year. By running many personal bests against a very competitive regionally-ranked field, it will help the team begin to fire on all cylinders. This experience will be valuable in the upcoming meets and I think this team will be a tough team to compete against going forward," concluded coach Zent.
 
Georgina Balderas was the next to finish crossing in 18:53.6 to earn 62^nd place. She bested her previous low time by nearly 50 seconds. She posted a 19:43.1 at the 2023 Texas A&M Invitational.
 
The final two scoring Texans were Kaitlyn Gale (83^rd - 19:18.0) and Kailey Sykora (97^th - 19:39.2). Ella Smart and Jordan Jones rounded out the squad crossing in 20:01.7 and 21:45.4, respectively.
 
SMU earned the team title with 48 points followed by Texas A&M (53 points) and Oklahoma (71 points). SMU swept the top two individual spots with seniors Kaitlyn Gearin and Emily Little crossing in 17:05.6 and 17:11.1, respectively.
 
Tarleton will be back in action in two weeks, heading to the Chili Pepper Festival in Fayetteville, Arkansas at Agri Park Cross Country Course.