Senior Layne Nixon won Saturday's inpromptu Brazos Valley Open.
COLLEGE STATION —
Led by a runner-up finish from sophomore Layne Nixon, the UTSA men’s cross country team won the impromptu Brazos Valley Open held Saturday morning at Central Park. Senior Dana Mecke captured her 10th career individual title to guide the women to second place in the meet put together by five schools after the cancellation of the Texas A&M Invitational.
Nixon led a quintet of Roadrunners that finished in the top nine, as UTSA tallied 29 points to finish comfortably ahead of Houston Baptist (49), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (54), Texas-Pan American (113) and Texas State (117). Nixon covered the four-mile course in a time of 21:34, just eight seconds off the winning pace provided by A&M-CC’s Jordan Valle (21:26).
Sophomores Cole Reveal and Brandon Chiuminetta finished fourth (21:58) and sixth (22:02), respectively, while redshirt freshman Daniel Balbontin and freshman Jim Stitt rounded out the top five scorers in eighth (22:06) and ninth (22:13), respectively.
Meanwhile, Mecke cruised her second win of the young season to help the women take second place with 56 points behind Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (26), but ahead of Texas State (66), Houston Baptist (98) and Texas-Pan American (114). The reigning Southland Conference Champion toured the 5k loop in a time of 18:21, giving her a 10th individual crown in the last 11 tries.
Sophomore Kayla Pratt took second overall with an 18:36 clocking, her second runner-up showing of the campaign. Freshman Ashley Benes was the third Roadrunner to cross, placing 15th in 19:39, while senior Pernilla Savestrand and sophomore Courtney Nelson finished 17th (20:06) and 22nd (20:42), respectively.
The Roadrunners return home to host the Ricardo Romo/Six Flags Fiesta Texas Classic next Friday, Sept. 18, at Brooks City-Base.