FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Tarleton State Men's and Women's Cross Country wrapped up their season at the program's second-ever appearance at the NCAA D1 South Central Region Championships on Friday morning at Agri Park Cross Country Course. 

The men placed 14th overall as a team in their second appearance at the D1 South Central Regional Meet. For the first time this season, Diego Flores topped the Texans to finish 60th. Freshman Mez Barth was the 12th freshman to cross the line and earned 63rd overall.

On the women's side, Kaitlyn Gale surpassed her Texans D1 era best finish from a season ago, finishing in 77th overall. Freshman Victoria Guerrrero also broke Gale's freshman place from last year finishing in 79th overall to be the highest finishing freshman woman in the Texans D1 era at the regional meet.

"This is a very young team, who is gaining a lot of experience," said head coach Bobby Carter. "It is good to see the progress our cross country team is having with only the second year of being eligible for post season championships. My goal for this team is to continue to keep improving. I believe this season they gained the experience that was needed. What we want to continue to look at is carrying more momentum as we move on to the indoor season. We definitely have much more to come."

Men
Diego Flores led the Texans for the first time this season crossing in 60th overall in 31:54.9. Flores improved on his 75th overall finish at the regional meet a year ago. Freshman Mez Barth crossed in 32:00.3 to cross in 63rd overall in his first collegiate 10K. Barth was the 12th freshman to cross the line in the meet. The next Texan to finish was Jace Poole in 87th. Poole clocked in at 32:34.2. 

"The guys put themselves out there in a great position for a top 10 finish," said distance coach Zent. "They maintained that over the course of the race, but came up just short in the final stretches. I am proud of their efforts and hard work all season."

Kellen Frickel was the fourth Texan to cross in 32:40.8 to claim 91st overall. The fifth scoring Texan was Tyler Hedgepeth who claimed 97th in 32:50.6. Jerryth Buckingham crossed in 125th place in 33:36.8. Michael Lopez finished in 128th in 33:42.1.

Tulane won the team title scoring 44 points. Arkansas was close behind claiming second with 46 total points.  Both Tulane and Arkansas will claim the South Central's automatic bids to the NCAA Championships. Texas A&M finished in third and Stephen F. Austin finished in fourth and will await word to find out if they are one of 14 teams to receive an at-large bid.

Arkansas junior Timothy Chesodin took home the individual title on his home course in 28:44.4. A pair of Tulane runners Bernard Cheruiyot and Silas Kiptanui finished second and third in 28:51.3 and 29:11.2, respectively. Arkansas posted the next three individual finishers from fourth to sixth place.

Women
Only three Texans raced for the injury-plagued Texans not allowing the squad to compete for a team score. Kaitlyn Gale led the Texans for the fourth-consecutive meet placing in 77th overall. Gale climbed nearly 30 spots after crossing the 3.2K split in 103rd place. Gale's 77th place finish is the best finish at the D1 regional in program history after her 84th place finish last season. Gale crossed in 22:23.5. 

"I am very proud of how our three ladies performed today," said coach Zent. "Each of the three out-performed our top three from last year, with Kaitlyn and Victoria posting the top two finishes in program history. I am very excited on how Victoria and Carley improved throughout the year and performed well at the regional."

Victoria Guerrero was the second Texan to finish, tightly behind Gale. Guerrero's 79th place performance is the best finish by a Texan freshman in the meet surpassing Gale's 84th place finish as a freshman last season. She was the 20th freshman to finish overall. Guerrero was less than a second behind Gale finishing in 22:24.2. Carley Thornton crossed in 139th place in 23:35.8.

Texas A&M took home the women's team title with 71 points. LSU finished in second to join Texas A&M to earn the South Central's automatic bid to the NCAA Championships in Colombia. Missouri. Tulane and LSU finished in third and fourth and will await their feat to see if they are one of the 14 teams across the eight regions to earn an at-large bid to the championships.

Texas A&M – Corpus Christi's Elizabeth Khatevi took the individual crown, crossing in19:33.6. She was followed closely behind by Arkansas senior Sydney Thorvaldson who finished nine seconds behind in 19:42.4. Tulane's Blezzin Kimutai rounded out the podium finishing in third in 19:53.0. 

The Texans Track and Field program will be back in action with the start of the indoor track season on Dec. 5 at Oklahoma.