Cross Country | 9/11/2015 9:44:00 PM

HOUSTON, Texas – Texas State Cross Country had to tackle a tough course at the Rice Invitational, littered with sizeable puddles and mud due to recent rains in the Houston area. Regardless of the conditions, the Bobcats fought through the 5,500-meter course for the men and the 3,800-meter course for the women to finish fourth and seventh respectively. Both teams showed improvement from last season's Rice Invitational.
 
To start, Joseph Pena finished 13^th to lead the Bobcats. His performance gave a Texas State Bobcat a better finish than anyone on the men's team at last year's Rice Invitational. He pushed the Bobcats through the sloshy course, dealing with questionable footing. According to Coach Giles McDonnell, Pena ran a tactically smart race to help him finish so well.
 
After Pena, Jose Angel Gonzalez finished 20^th. The sophomore was able to get out early with a fast start to the race, and found it within himself to finish strong to put two Bobcats in the top 20 of the race. That helped the Texas State men beat teams such as Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Rice, UL Lafayette and more.
 
McDonnell, though, was most proud of the Bobcats who finished in the middle of the men's pack: Joseph Meade, Logan Pittdman, Alec Saucedo and Jordan Janer. The group ran well as a pack, which is always the goal in cross country.
 
"They worked well together as teammates," said McDonnell. "They really achieved the team aspect of cross country to work together through the entire course and finish as a group."
 
The foursome all finished within 13 seconds of each other, led by Meade in 26^th place. Pittdman, Saucedo and Janer finished within three second of each other to take 33^rd, 35^th and 38^th place.  
 
On the women's side, Devina Schneider and Nikki Sanchez led the Bobcats for the second consecutive race. The duo finished 14^th and 16^th place with just 38/100ths of a second separating them.
 
"They're starting to learn to play off each other and work well as a team at the front of the pack," said McDonnell of Schneider and Sanchez.
 
Victoria Lautzenheiser wasn't far behind, coming in a minute later for a 36^th-place finish, followed by Belinda Aguilar, Gabriela Ortegon, Chelsea Thompson and Abigail Gennero.
 
Texas State was able to beat Houston Baptist, Texas A&M International, Prairie View A&M and Texas Southern.
 
"This performance shows that they have worked hard over the summer and are starting to round into shape," said McDonnell. "They're progressing in the right direction, and we're looking forward to the Chile Pepper Festival."
 
The Bobcats will get some time to prepare for their next meet, the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival in Fayetteville, Ark. The meet is Saturday, Oct. 3, and Texas State will follow that with a meet at Incarnate Word the following week before going to the Sun Belt Conference Championships.