XC Travels to Pre-Nationals, Arturo Barrios Invitational

Saturday, October 13

College Station, Texas

9:00 A.M. CT

Baylor

Arturo Barrios Invitational

XC Travels to Pre-Nationals, Arturo Barrios Invitational

10/12/2018 1:00:00 PM | Cross Country

Women’s team will run 6K at Wisconsin; men’s team will compete in 8K at Texas A&M.

By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider

Humbled three weeks ago with a 17^th-place finish at the Notre Dame Invitational, the Baylor women's cross country team will try to bounce back against an even more challenging field at Saturday's Pre-Nationals in Madison, Wis.

Led by top-ranked Colorado, the women's Pre-National Cardinal Race will feature 10 of the top 25 teams in the latest coaches' rankings on the 6,000-meter Thomas Zimmer Championship Cross Country Course.

"This is actually a deeper field," Baylor associate head coach Jon Capron said. "Missing a little up top, (Notre Dame) was a little sobering, but I think it's also encouraging some growth. I don't want to say we've been pruned back, but it really is kind of allowing some of the middle to flourish. If we get anything out this, I think it's really encouraged some of the ones that have been in the middle, been in the not-quite-as-important roles, to really step up going forward."

At Notre Dame, the Baylor women finished 17^th in a 19-team field that had ranked teams in the top four spots – BYU, Furman, Notre Dame and Florida State.

Todd Harbour, who coached the women's team until this year, told Capron after the Notre Dame meet that the "one thing you might be missing is just I don't know if you've turned on their speed yet."

"We went out to the track and turned them loose, basically," Capron said. "I think they're feeling a lot more confident in their legs and the speed they have. I think it's always been there, the fitness is there, it's just being ready to use it, being brave enough to say, 'No, I can go this fast at the beginning of this race and still finish.'''

Joining Baylor and Colorado in the 35-team field for the Cardinal Race, which begins at 10 a.m. CDT, are No. 4 Oregon, No. 7 Arkansas, No. 9 BYU, No. 11 Indiana, No. 13 NC State, No. 18 Ole Miss, No. 21 Minnesota, 23^rd-ranked Portland and No. 25 Florida State. Ten other top-30 teams are entered in the White Race, including No. 3 New Mexico and No. 5 Stanford.

"You're going to get exposed if you do anything wrong," Capron said. "If you get excited and blow it out, it's going to go a lot worse than if you measure. We have some controls in place. (Sophomore Brooke Gilmore) is pretty good at keeping it level-headed, so we're kind of using her and coaxing her to go out a little quicker than she has been. Whereas, the shorter middle-distance crew is in charge of pulling back a little bit and moving to the middle. We're trying to make sure we keep it pretty even-keel, but making sure we're not afraid of competing in the beginning."

Joining Gilmore in the Pre-Nationals lineup in Wisconsin are fellow sophomore Sarah Antrich, juniors Alison Andrews-Paul, Gabby Satterlee and Lindsay Walton and freshmen Celia Holmes and Mazie Larsen. Gilmore, Andrews-Paul, Antrich and Holmes have been scoring runners in each of the first three meets of the year.

A split-squad women's team will join the Baylor men's team at the Arturo Barrios Invitational in College Station, Texas. Running in the women's 6K race at 9:45 a.m. are juniors Emily Curran, Haley Everroad, Sydney Gandy, Isabella Lackner, Hana Marsheck and Katy Parsons, sophomores Aaliyah Miller and Natasha Strump and freshman Lauren Ammons.

Baylor's men placed last among 11 teams in the Gold Division race at the Notre Dame Invitational. Sophomore T.J. Sugg had a solid top-20 finish, covering the 8K course in 25 minutes, 13.66 seconds, but he was the only BU runner in the top 50.

This week, the Bears will be without sophomore Jeremy Meadows, who earned Big 12 Runner of the Week honors after winning the season-opening Bear Twilight Invitational. Joining Sugg in the lineup at A&M are fellow sophomores Connor Laktasic and J.B. Sandlund, seniors Seth Brown, Henry Huff and Jeff Kirwin, junior Matt Henderson and freshman Cal Johnston, with the 8,000-meter race beginning at 9 a.m.

"They just need to compete," Capron said of the men, who fell out of the regional rankings after the Notre Dame race. "That's a really good race for them. A lot of the regional competitors will be down there, and it's on the regional course (for the NCAA South Central Region Championships). I'm really expecting to see them just mix it up with the people they need to mix it up with, people from our region, and not get kind of big-eyed with maybe what they saw at Notre Dame."

After this weekend, the Baylor men's and women's teams will have an off week before the Big 12 Championship on Friday, Oct. 26, in Ames, Iowa.

WACO, Texas – Baylor cross country will compete at two meets Saturday (Oct. 13), with the women's team headed to Pre-Nationals in Madison, Wis., and the men's team going to the Arturo Barrios Invitational in College Station, Texas.

Alison Andrews-Paul, Celia Holmes, Sarah Antrich, Brooke Gilmore, Gabby Satterlee, Mazie Larsen, and Lindsay Walton will be representing Baylor at the Pre-Nationals meet in the women's "Cardinal" 6,000-meter race at 10:00 a.m. CT.

"This one's not too much unlike Notre Dame, it's actually a deeper field," associate head coach Jon Capron said. "Pretty similar overall because they split up the races, there's that many people. I think we've got some controls put in place. Brooke is pretty good at keeping it level-headed, so we're kind of using her and kind of coaxing her to go out a little quicker than she has been. Whereas the shorter middle-distance crew, they're in charge of pulling back a little bit and moving to the middle. That's what we're trying to do, making sure that we keep it pretty even-keel, but making sure we're not afraid of competing in the beginning."

Running for the men's team in the Arturo Barrios Invitational will be Seth Brown, Matt Henderson, Henry Huff, Cal Johnston, Jeff Kirwin, Connor Laktasic, J.B. Sandlund, and TJ Sugg. The men's 8,000-meter race will begin at 9 a.m. CT.

"They just need to compete," Capron said. "That's a really good race for them. A lot of the regional competitors will be down there, and it's on the regional course. So, I'm really expecting to see them just mix it up with the people that they need to mix it up with, people from our region and not get kind of big-eyed with maybe what they saw at Notre Dame."

Also joining the men's team in College Station and competing in the women's 6,000 meters at 9:45 a.m. CT will be Lauren Ammons, Emily Curran, Haley Everroad, Sydney Gandy, Isabella Lackner, Hana Marsheck, Aaliyah Miller, Katy Parsons, and Natasha Strump.

"We talked about leading up before the other meet how we had a pretty good training block," Capron said. "Sometimes, that means you've got a lot of good training in, and sometimes that means they're tired. I think maybe they were a little tired, so I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do with maybe being a little fresher this week."

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