Complete Results

Following a 40-minute lightning delay, Baylor senior Maggie Montoya won her second straight Bear Twilight title and helped the women's team pick up head-to-head victories over SMU and TCU Friday night at the Heart O' Texas Soccer Complex.

Montoya ran the 4,000-meter course in 13:44.2, well off the 13:24.4 time she posted last year, and had three other Baylor runners in the top seven at the Bears' only home meet of the season.

"It's good to get something fast and short in and for all the freshmen to get a chance to feel it out," Montoya said. "I kept looking back and asking people, `How far are they behind me?' Because I could have sworn they were right behind me. I just went hard and told myself that it will be done in no time."

Fellow senior Peyton Thomas was second in 13:52.2, with freshmen Anna West (14:06.5) and Gabrielle Satterlee (14:09.4) finishing sixth and seventh, respectively. The Bears could have four top-10 finishers, but senior Alex Davis and sophomore transfer Lyndsey Bradley from Washington were both sitting out.

"We'd like to get Lyndsey Bradley and Alex Davis into that mix," Baylor coach Todd Harbour said. "Those were two of the big ones we held out. I think we have as much depth as we did two years ago, maybe more. And that was a pretty good team."

Instead of the normal team meet scoring that was done the previous nine years, this year's event was scored as a head-to-head dual meet. The Baylor women edged SMU, 28-29, and dominated TCU, 17-40. Under the old scoring system, SMU would have actually won the meet with a team total of 29 points and six runners in the top 11.

"We've been training hard, but SMU ran well today," Harbour said. "I'm happy with where we are. We just need to get a couple bodies back in the mix."

Baylor's next four runners were all freshmen and were separated by less than 20 seconds. Kathryn Foreman was 20th overall in 14:49.3, followed by Hana Marsheck (14:55.6) and half-milers Aaliyah Miller (15:01.8) and Alison Andrews (15:07.2).

"I wasn't really surprised other than Aaliyah and Alison." Harbour said. "I thought they ran a little bit over their heads. I didn't see that in workouts. But, Aaliyah is a 2:02 half-miler, she's just tough, and Alison is a 2:06 girl. I was proud of those two, because they're not too fired up about cross country."

On the men's side, junior Eric Anderson was Baylor's lead runner for the third straight year and placed third overall in 12:17.2. Because of the weather delay and darkness, the men's race was shortened to 4,000 meters and actually started while the women were still running.

"I was, honestly, just glad that we got the gun to go off," Anderson said. "And we didn't have to run around the girls too much. This was a good first step, and I think we're going to be ready when we go to UNT in two weeks."

With the shorter distance, the men's race turned into an all-out sprint at the end, with the top 10 runners all finishing within 16 seconds of each other. North Texas' Florian Lussy and James Coleman finished 1-2, with Anderson nipping at their heels, and Baylor sophomore Jeff Kirwin was 10th in 12:29.8.

"I think we had a couple guys that wished it was another 2K longer, but I was really pleased with just the way they got out there and competed," men's coach Jon Capron said. "That was a really exciting race. The 4K spiced things up a little bit pretty quick. . . . That's as fast as I've seen that pack come through on this course, ever. If that wasn't an exciting cross country race to watch, I don't know what is. That was fun, to me."

The men split their head-to-head matchups, beating TCU (15-40) and falling to North Texas (35-20).

Sophomore Henry Huff (12:33.3) and senior Matt Parham (12:33.8) were 14th and 15, respectively, with sophomore Sean McCullough 19th at 12:40.1. Freshman Matt Henderson, running unattached, placed 17th overall at 12:34.8.

Like the women, the Baylor men held out two of its top runners.

"Matt Henderson ran really well. He had some left, which was good to see," Capron said. "The 4K is hard to really measure, because that's actually shorter than what he ran in high school. So, it's kind of hard to see how far he's come. But the fact that he was able to mix it up in there with everybody, get comfortable and go from there, it's a good sign, for sure."

After taking next weekend off, the Baylor men and women will compete in the Ken Garland Invitational Sept. 17 in Denton, Texas.

The event was almost cancelled due to lightning in the area that made meet organizers remove all participants from the field of competition at 5:45 p.m. The threat of lightning didn't clear until 7:11 p.m. and at that time the decision was made to give teams an abbreviated warmup time and start the women's race at 7:40 p.m. Meanwhile, the men's race would be shortened from 6,000 meters to 4,000 meters and start just 10 minutes after the women's opening gun to avoid darkness.

Individually for the women, Montoya secured the meet crown with a time of 13:44.2, while senior Peyton Thomas (13:52.2) was second and freshman Anna West (14:06.6) was sixth overall, in the 4,000-meter race.

In the men's race, Anderson (12:17.2) was the lead Bear with the third-place finish, while Jeff Kirwin (12:29.8) and Henry Huff (12:33.3) were 10th and 14th overall, respectively.

In a change from previous years, the team portion of the race was scored as a dual-meet where teams faced off against one another head-to-head instead of being judged against the entire field.

The BU women won their head-to-head contest with SMU (28-29).

Meanwhile, the men went 1-1 on the night with a victory over TCU (15-40) and a loss to North Texas (35-20).

HIGHLIGHTS
- Baylor had a total of 19 girls competing in the event, while the men only had five runners.
- Montoya was BU's first individual back-to-back champion since Rachel Johnson won it in 2012 and 2013. She claims BU's ninth individual title in the 10-year history of the event, joining Johnson (2), Cate Westenhover (2) and Nichole Jones (3).
- There were five men's teams (Baylor, Incarnate Word, North Texas, TCU, and Texas State) and six women's teams (Baylor, Incarnate Word, North Texas, SMU, TCU, and Texas State) at the meet.
- The women's other scoring runners included Gabby Satterlee (14:09.4) and Kathryn Foreman (14:49.3).
- Baylor's fourth and fifth-place runners on the men's side were Matt Parham (12:33.8) and Sean McCullough (12:40.1).
- Both the Baylor women (Lindsey Bradley, Alex Davis and Madie Zimmerman) and the BU men (Matt League and Jordan West) didn't run several of their top runners.

STAT OF THE MEET
9 -- The number of individual titles the Baylor women have claimed in 10 years of Bear Twilight action.

TOP QUOTE #1
"It really didn't look we were going to be able to run with the weather, but it was great to get a race in. I am happy with where we are at, but we need to get a couple people back. We know what Maggie and Peyton are going to do and then Anna West ran really well and Gabby ran really well too. We held out two big ones in Lindsey Bradley and Alex Davis, so we may have even a little more depth than maybe we did two years ago." -- head coach Todd Harbour on the women's top performers

TOP QUOTE #2
"I am really pleased with the way my guys got out there and competed. That was a really exciting race. Shortening the race to a 4K really spiced things up. I am just really pleased with how the race came together. Eric is in pretty good shape. He comes in in good shape. He does his homework over the summer and he was able to show that, but we have a lot of guys right behind him and that is exciting." -- assistant head coach Jon Capron on the men's team

WHAT'S NEXT
Both the men and women will have next weekend off, before taking part in the Ken Garland Invitational on Sept. 17 in Denton, Texas.