Sophomore Layne Nixon finished seventh at Saturday's Southland Conference Championships.
CORPUS CHRISTI —
Led by an all-conference showing from sophomore Layne Nixon, the UTSA men’s cross country team finished third at the Southland Conference Championships held Saturday morning at West Guth Park.
The Roadrunners tallied 86 points by placing their first five finishers in the top 22. Lamar successfully defended its league crown with 38 points, while McNeese State was runner-up with 65. UTSA edged Stephen F. Austin (87) by one point and host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi was fifth with 127. The third-place finish was the highest by the men since also picking up the bronze in 1998.
Nixon, who was the top finisher as a freshman last fall with a 16th-place effort, covered the 8k trail in a time of 24:24 in a tight race won by Lamar’s Francis Kasagule (23:54). It marked the highest individual finish by a Roadrunner in more than half a decade.
“Layne ran really well today,” cross country coach Scott Slade said. “He has trained well and worked hard for this, and getting all-conference in his second season is a great accomplishment.”
UTSA’s depth was on display as all eight runners crossed in the top 26.
Sophomore Cole Reveal clocked a 25:14 to finish 17th, while sophomore Michael Cook was two spots behind in 25:19. Redshirt sophomore Brandon Chiuminetta and sophomore Albert Cardenas rounded out the top five scorers in 21st (25:26) and 22nd (25:27), respectively.
Senior Corey Vargas and redshirt freshman Daniel Balbontin were right behind in 23rd (25:29) and 24th (25:31), while freshman Jim Stitt was 26th (25:44).
“Today showed that we have very good depth on this team,” Slade said. “We need to work on closing the gap between first and second, but everybody improved their times from last year and to get all eight guys across before several teams’ first runner and SFA’s fourth is an example of that depth.
“This is the best finish for this program in a long time — 11 years or so — so we’re extremely proud of that accomplishment. However, we’re not completely satisfied with third. I’m confident we will continue to improve and I know this program is headed in the right direction. We’re very young but excited about the future.”
“I can’t say enough about the job Coach Slade and Coach (Virginia) Coindreau have done getting the teams ready for this meet,” director of track and field/cross country Aaron Fox said. “The guys were focused and stuck to the race plan this morning and it paid off. Getting third place at conference is a great accomplishment and another step in the right direction for the program. This is a very young team still, so the future is very bright.”
The Roadrunners will take next week off before traveling to Waco to compete in the NCAA South Central Regional on Saturday, Nov. 14.