COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Friday morning at the Dale Watts cross country course saw a historic finish for the Texas State women's team. The Bobcats placed third for the best finish in program history and one spot out of an automatic berth to the National Championship meet. Leslie Romero led the way with a 12^th-place finish as one of three TXST women runners to earn all-region honors.
 
Romero was the fifth best individual finisher from one of the non-automatic bid teams to cross the finish line. She will await word on whether she earns an at-large spot to the national meet following the conclusion of the seven other regional championships this weekend.
 
Earning all-region honors after coming in 19^th with a time of 21:28.0 was Sydney Cole. Finishing a tenth of a second and two spots behind her was Kendra Long to pick up all-region accolades as well. Both of their times rank in the top 10 in TXST history.
 
Devina Schneider improved 13 spots from the 2K checkpoint to place 36^th overall. She completed her final collegiate cross country race in 21:55.6. Crossing the line nearly five seconds back of her was McKynzie King to claim 38^th-place.
 
Both Tina Sierra and Abby Steinhauser-San Miguel finished in the top half of the 154-racer field.
 
Texas State, entering the meet ranked eighth in the region, was in contention for the second and final automatic spot to the National Championships with a kilometer to go with Texas. In the end, the Bobcats totaled 122 points to finish behind Arkansas and the Longhorns TXST did beat out Baylor, LSU, Rice, SMU and Texas A&M at the meet.
 
In the men's race, Joseph Meade recorded a personal best finish of 13^th out of 115 competitors to earn all-region honors for the second straight year after finishing 18^th in 2017. The senior crossed the 2K checkpoint in 41^st before rising all the way to eighth at the 6.3K checkpoint. He crossed the finish line in the 10K race in 32:11.4.
 
Freshman Dereck Elkins completed the race in 32:52.1 to place 30^th. He was five spots shy of picking up all-region honors in his first regional meet. The Round Rock, Texas native was the third highest finishing freshman at the completion.
 
For the latest on Texas State track and field, visit the official website of Texas State Athletics at www.txstatebobcats.com and follow the team on Twitter at @TxStateTrack.