Texas A&M a tough lesson for the Coogs

The varstiy boys started out the A&M Invitational and were led again by senior Eric Sheppard. Sheppard finished 17th with a time of 17:01. Eric said he was happy with his finish, he just wished his time were a little faster. Senior Chris Pine was again the number 2 man for the team finishing 46th in 17:58. Chris said he went out hard and just couldn't hang on. Pine went through his first mile in 5:15 just behind Sheppard who ran 5:08. Bernardo Palomera was the team's 3rd man this week, finishing 90th with a PR of 19:44. The Coogs did struggle in their first 5k of the season. The team faced some of the toughest competition of the year including the winning team Kingwood, who are ranked 3rd in the south region by the Nike Team National ranking system. They also got to see the second place team South Lake Carroll, who had the overall winner, Senior Kevin Ondrasek. Ondrasek is one of the favorites to win the 5A state title this year. The boys did not bode well in the team totals but were missing Sophomore Evan Wilson, Juniors Jacob Charlez and Kenneth Clark, and Senior Jay Gary; all of whom had been in the top seven runners proir to this meet.

The varsity girls were up next in the seeded race, which covered 5000 meters (the only time the girls will run this distance in a high school meet). The girls also faced some brutal competition in very hot conditions. Sophomore Elizabeth Westlake led the team for the third consecutive week. Westlake finished 31st in a time of 21:22. Senior Veronica Rodriguez moved up in the rotation and was running very well early in the race. Veronica was just seconds behind Westlake through 2 miles. V-Rod finished 46th. The performance of the meet would have to go to Sophomore Brittany Moreno who ran very tough over the 5000 meter course and was only 2 places behind V-Rod. Amy Machemehl, who had been running like super girl through the first two meets, showed her first sign of weakness at A&M. She finished 51st and ran 4th man for the team. The varsity girls were missing Ashley Longoria, who has been running 5th man at the Cougar Classic and 4th man at the Rice Invitational.

The program will host the Carol Williams 5k on Saturday, September 25th at 7:30am. A lot of the team will be racing and some will be helping out race management.