Cross Country | 9/5/2015 10:46:00 AM

AUSTIN, Texas – Texas State drew a tough test for the first cross country race of the season, a head-to-head meet with the Texas Longhorns. Texas, which has already garnered votes for both teams in the United States Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association, are ranked second in the region for both the men and women. Friday night, Texas welcomed the Bobcats to the Longhorns' home course.
 
The course proved to be a difficult one, packed full of hills in a short race. The men ran just a 5K distance while the women ran an even shorter race at 3K. The women will likely expect to run twice that distance for the Sun Belt Conference Championships while the men will run an 8K, 3,000 meters farther than Friday's race.
 
"As a whole, this was an encouraging start for our team," said Coach Giles McDonnell. "It shows us what we need to work on, but also that we our progressing the way we need to go."
 
McDonnell was also impressed with the ownership both the men's and women's team has taken of the program since former cross country coach Bryan Jackson recently departed.
 
The Bobcats were with Texas most of the race. For the men, Texas State was in it the 4,000 meters of the race, but began to run out of juice the last 1,000 meters of the course.
 
"I thought Joseph Pena competed like an animal out there. He competed and gave it his all," said Volunteer Assistant Coach James Leonard. "Meanwhile, Logan Pittdman ran a consistent, smart race the whole way."
 
Pena finished with a time of 16:25.98 while Pittdman came in just four seconds later at 16:29.26 for second and third on the Texas State squad. The Bobcat leader, however, was sophomore Jose Angel Gonzalez. He competed well down the stretch, making up ground the second half of the race to finish in eighth place with a time of 16:11.54. Leonard lauded Gonzalez's tactics in the race as well.
 
On the women's side, Nikki Sanchez and Devina Schneider stood out with Sanchez beating two Texas runners and Schneider ahead of one. Sanchez put up a time of 11:32.84 in the 3K while Schneider was just eight seconds behind at 11:40.62. Schneider raced Mary Beth Hamilton of Texas down the stretch and came within just 12/100ths of a second of beating her. Sanchez is a sophomore from San Marcos and Schneider is in her freshman season. The duo ran at the front of the race for the Bobcats and seemed to work well off of each other.
 
"Nikki and Devina went for it from the beginning. They ran a tough, strong race from beginning to end," Leonard said. "I'm really looking forward to them working together throughout the season to see what they can do."
 
The Bobcats also received a good race from Victoria Lautzenheiser. A former softball player in high school, Lautzenheiser was running her first cross country race as a Texas State Bobcat, and Leonard liked her pace. She was steady throughout the race, but kept making up ground, finishing with a time of 12:04.90.
 
"As the season progresses, it will be fun to watch her get better," said Leonard. "She really competed and ran a strong second half of the race. She'll be closer to Nikki and Devina before the season is through."
 
In addition to the top three on the women's side, McDonnell was impressed with three middle-distance runners who have stepped up to run cross country: Amber Gilmore, Esther Oyetunde and Erin Williams. The trio is used to running just 800-meter races and competed in a 3K race Friday.
 
The Bobcats will look to improve this next week as Texas State prepares for the Rice Invitational in Houston on Friday.