Squads return to competition at Islander Splash
9/24/2015 10:00:00 AM | Cross Country, Cross Country
After concluding a challenging week of training with no scheduled races last weekend, the Sam Houston State cross country teams return to competition on Friday, traveling to Corpus Christi for the Islander Splash.
The squads are coming off strong performances at the Southland Conference Preview, hosted at Huntsville's Kate Barr Ross Memorial Park, with the men placing first behind 32 points and the women taking second at 67 points.
“We took the Southland Preview pretty seriously as far as being prepared to race well and putting forth a good effort,” cross country coach Jesse Parker said. “I backed off them a little bit that week but this past week was a pretty hard training week and this week is a really hard training week for them. I imagine a few of them feel it in their legs so they'll have a couple easy days to get their legs underneath them to race well Friday.”
The women will race the 5K at 6:15 p.m. followed by men's 7.2K competition at 6:45 p.m. Both races will take place at the Momentum Campus of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, with the UIL Regional IV Meet taking place Saturday.
“It's a new course we're running on this year,” Parker said. “It will be fairly flat and so I'm excited to get on that and see the new course. Corpus always puts on a good meet. With how hard we've been training, the competition level will be good.”
Following Friday's race, Parker says the squads will use Saturday as an opportunity to unwind and spend time together as a team relaxing, something he believes is important in the collegiate experience.
“We'll stay there (Friday night) and they'll get a chance to go down to the beach the next day and relax and enjoy themselves,” Parker said. “The actual collegiate experience goes beyond competing and racing by getting a chance to hang out with friends and teammates. I won't say it's a vacation but there's a reward after the race for them to enjoy themselves.”
The men were led by Chris Speaks' top mark of 19:52.2 in the four-mile at the Southland Preview, while second-year members Grant Buley (4th place – 20:17.0), Colton Stoker (6th place – 20:25.7) and Jeffrey Moore (9th place – 20:43.3) all notched top-10 finishes.
“Those are our two, three and four guys and performances like that are always encouraging to see,” Parker said. “Most people see their biggest improvement between their freshmen and sophomore years. It's always how you bounce back to let you know what kind of athletes you have to work with. They're setting themselves up to have a very good fall.”
Meanwhile, junior Olivia Olguin (4th place – 18:42.6), senior Nicole Aponte (6th place – 18:47.6) and senior Ana Moreno (9th place – 19:06.7) took top 10 finishes. Aponte, who battled through and injury last spring, has appeared on top of her game through her first pair of weekends of competition since taking 85th (22:38.1) in the 6K at the NCAA Division I South Central Region Championships last November.
“That's where you find out what the mental makeup of an athlete really is and she's had to do that a couple times,” Parker said. “To see her running as well as she is, it's the tip of the iceberg. She's a hard worker and wants to do well.”
For the latest on Sam Houston cross country, follow @SHSU_TFXC on Twitter and visit GoBearkats.com.
