COLLEGE STATION — Monty Bertschy just missed a top-10 finish to highlight UTSA's action at Friday's Aggie Opener.
Bertschy, a junior from Boerne, covered the 6,000-meter Dale Watts Cross Country Course in 19:02.5 en route to 11th place in the field of 37 runners. Meanwhile, Alex Cruz was 14th in 19:17 and Saul Vasquez (19:21.3/17th) and Peter Sepulveda (19:24.5/20th) also finished in the top 20. Hunter Hawkins (19:36.1/23rd) rounded out the team's scorers.
"I thought the men competed with toughness tonight," UTSA cross country coach David Hartman said. "We matched up well with the other teams that competed, but we have work to do. However, I thought we looked good for it being the season opener."
Meet host Texas A&M captured the team title with a perfect score of 15 points on the strength of Cameron Villarreal's individual victory (18:18.1) and four other runners in the top five. In fact, the Aggies saw nine of their entries place among the top 10 overall. Lamar placed second with 55 points, the Roadrunners were third with 72 and Texas Southern rounded out the team standings with its 120 points.
UTSA will return to action in two weeks when it travels to Austin on Friday, Sept. 16, for the Texas Invitational.
