MEET WEEK

This Friday, our cross country team heads to Pennsylvania for the Paul Short Run at Lehigh! Nearly 70 schools on each side will contest the meet!

Here's to me manifesting one of or both Victor Kibiego and Debora Cherono make their Aggie Cross Country debuts

Oh God, I'm an idiot. The meet is next week!!! I was dying for some Aggie cross country I got the dates wrong

No problem, happens to all of us.

OKAY NOW ITS MEET WEEK

Cross Country Preview - Paul Short Run

Meet: Paul Short Run
Date: October 3rd (also known as Taylor Swift's Album Release Day)
Time: Men - 10:00, Women -10:45
Location: Goodman Campus Cross Country Course - Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
Distance: Men 8k, Women 6k
Other Notable Schools: Georgetown, Harvard, Penn, Penn State, Syracuse, Utah State, Villanova,
Live Results: https://results.leonetiming.com/xc.html?mid=8147


Meet Preview
THE TIME HAS COME... Listed on a cross country start list for the first time in their Aggie career, Victor Kibiego and Debora Cherono. As the season builds and the temperature drops, teams usually slowly begin to run will their complete rosters. While we won't be exactly at 100%, this will be the closest to it in a long long time! BUT SO HELP ME GOD IF THEY ARE LISTED AND DO NOT RUN I WILL FLY OUT THERE AND GIVE MCRAVEN A STERN TALKING TO. We'll also see the Aggie debut for Youssef Asslouj, a transfer from the Cumberlands where he was a top ten finisher nationally at the NAIA level in cross country and a national champion on the track. Luca Santorum is listed to make his season debut as well, after his stellar performance in the spring and summer.

Our ladies and gentleman will fly all the way to Pennsylvania to compete in the Paul Short Run, its 51st competition. We won't be seeing any of our regional foes nor any of our conference foes either. The competition is primarily made up of North Eastern universities. So we will see different teams and some teams that are historically competitive.We ran at this meet 2 years ago and had some really great results including a top ten finish by Eric Casarez. However, the meet had many more nationally ranked teams back then. The nationally ranked teams in attendance of this meet are the: Syracuse Men, Georgetown and Penn State Women. So it will still be a great test to see how we run in a large field and competitive field. There will be 38 teams in the gold division.

Listed to run in the gold division for us isYoussef Asslouj, Cooper Cawthra, Carter Gordy, Diego Heredia, Hunter Jackson, Jack Johnston, Victor Kibiego, Zack Munger, Luca Santorum, and Noah Willows. Gavin Chapa and Aiden Gonzalez-Rodilles are set to run in the open division, which is shocking because Gavin Chapa ran extremely well last time out. Same thing on the women's side, Kennady Fontenot and Emma Little are in the open division. For the Gold division we have: Sophia Bendet, Debora Cherono, Ava Cole, Alexandra Fox, Joyce Kemboi, San Juanita Leal, Staucie Lees, Maddie Peters, Megan Roberts, Elise Smoot.

Again, these lists aren't finalized possibly so who knows if we'll see some changeups. It might just be a tactic to not run or to see where certain runners stand. The big story will be Kibiego and Cherono finally making their cross country debuts in the maroon and white. Kibiego is a two time national qualifier in cross country but missed all of last season. Cherono has never raced a collegiate cross country meet in the NCAA, so I'm excited to see how she races and how well she does.

In a larger meet like we'll see tomorrow, having a top gun runner that fights near the top can significantly boost your team standings. For those new to the sport, cross country team standings are calculated by adding the top 5 places on each team. The team with the lowest total score wins and so forth.

Kibiego missed all of last season with an injury. In 2023, he was one of the best cross country runners in the nation. He slowly recovered through track season and was at his best when he made the steeplechase national finals. If healthy he should return to his top form and it's safe to expect a top ten mark if he runs hard. Behind him will be a strong group led by Cooper Cawthra who won the Texas A&M Invitational a couple weeks ago. Luca Santorum and Youssef Asslouj will be making their season debuts so that is a huge boost to our team as well. Carter Gordy and Diego Heredia have made massive strides this season and look to keep factoring into the top 5. Zack Munger has yet to compete this season as well, but he was one of our best runners last season along with Jack Johnston. I'm expecting our men to be one of the top teams. Consistently teams like Georgetown, Harvard, Syracuse, and Villanova are always solid squads. It would be nice to see us compete with these schools and flex what Texas A&M is all about. I'm curious to see how our places look in a big meet and with deeper squad.

On the women's side, it'll be sad to not have Fontenot in the lineup, but I'm still excited to see how we fare as a team. Again having Cherono will significantly boost the team score as she should be able to compete up top. However, I'm also excited to see Megan Roberts up against great competition. An unsung hero so far has been UTEP transfer, Joyce Kemboi. She's been running really sharp and helping this team!! Our fabulous freshman have already made such a huge impact. Sophia Bendet is as advertised and is providing a significant boost to this squad. As are Flower Mound girls Alexandra Fox and Ava Cole. I also believe San Juanita Leal will only be getting stronger and stronger each week as she returns to top form. If that's the case then this team will be even stronger and stronger. Hopefully Fontenot is healthy, but her success in November is what is most important. With her in the lineup, she's a guaranteed top 5 runner for us. With a couple nationally ranked women's squads, I'm excited to see how we fare. I want to see this young team compete hard and prove to everyone and most importantly themselves how great they are.

Again, I'm excited to have cross country back once again. That was way too long in between meets! 3 weeks is way too much time! Can't wait to see how we do tomorrow! I'll be here providing updates and commentary! Looks like there will be 3 checkpoints in the men's race and 2 in the women's. Time to show those northeasterners what Texas A&M is all about! Not only do I get to listen to a new Taylor album at 11pm but I get to wake up and cheer on Aggie Cross Country!!! Happy me!

Here's the central website for all things about the meet!!
https://lehighsports.com/sports/paul-short-run

MEET DAY

BTHOutahstate!

quadrupled check!!! if not more lol

Anchorhold said:

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BTHOutahstate!

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maybe we should BTHO the other schools too but I need to know the anchorhold vs Utah State lore

It is barely October and we've already beaten them twice in other sports. "Blue aggies" need to be reminded they are blue and their jerseys should be clear on that.

Agreed!!

No one running in the open divisions even though 6 Aggies were scheduled. We'll see if the lineups stay the same for the gold races

Men are off!!

Mile into the race and the Aggies are at the top of the pack!! Although still lots of racing to be done!

Gavin Chapa is running in this gold race

AND YES VICTOR KIBIEGO IS RACING

Men through 5k

11. Jack Johnston
12. Cooper Cawthra
24. Victor Kibiego
27. Youssef Asslouj
34. Carter Gordy

90. Gavin Chapa
140. Hunter Jackson

Team Placing - 2nd

Some of the guys paying the price of going out extremely hard

Pacing is one of the hardest things to master in distance running (although my experience was as sprinter).

Men through 6.3k

12. Jack Johnston
14. Cooper Cawthra
27. Victor Kibiego
40. Carter Gordy
44. Youssef Asslouj


116. Gavin Chapa
182. Hunter Jackson

Team Placing - 3rd

And 3rd out of 40 is still pretty darn good !!

Live results stopped working

Men 8K - Paul Short Run

4. Cooper Cawthra - 23:20
10. Jack Johnston - 23:28
38. Victor Kibiego - 23:56
39. Youssef Asslouj - 23:57
46. Carter Gordy - 24:00

144. Gavin Chapa - 24:48
218. Hunter Jackson - 25:21
238. Luca Santorum - 25:29
265. Noah Willows - 25:44
343. Zack Munger - 29:38


Team Place - 3rd

Winning is always better but 4th place overall (and 10th) and 3rd for team is pretty darn good with the number of runners competing.

What a finish from Cooper Cawthra and Jack Johnston to earn top ten places in such a huge field! That's amazing! Youssef Asslouj did great in his Aggie debut and Victor Kibiego ran well for his first cross country race since 2023! Carter Gordy continues his amazing season to round out our top 5!!

Then men placed 3rd overall out of 38 schools! Looks great to see us up there with some great teams! Team is slowly coming together!

Almost 350 runners

What the hell guys?!!!!