Oct. 6, 2015
DENTON –The North Texas men’s cross country team earned another milestone this season becoming the first team in school history to be receiving national poll votes announced by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
“It means a lot to our men’s team to receive votes in the national poll,” said cross country coach Stefanie Slekis. “The men have been focused on making the national championship for the past two years and they knew it would be a long process to get there so finally having recognition that they are getting close to their goal is a big step. We still need to show we can race well at larger meets and perform on the day at the regional meet, but this is still a huge accomplishment for a program that has never qualified for an NCAA Cross Country Championship.”
Coming off a one-point victory at the Texas Longhorn Invitational last week, the men’s team was honored with three votes in the top 30 national poll this week. The Texas Longhorns, who lost their home meet to the Mean Green, moved up to No. 30 in the poll.
The men’s team remained third in the South Central regional poll just behind Texas (No. 30) and Arkansas (No. 13). Sophomore Mike Lowe had a stellar race leading North Texas to their third victory of the season after placing third with a time of 25:25.4. It was Lowe’s third best time in an 8k run falling short of his Conference USA championship time of 25:14.0.
North Texas had five runners in the top 15 in Austin with junior James Coleman finishing sixth (25:34.4), senior Bryce McAndrew touching in seventh (25:37.3), junior Cody Campbell came in 11th (25:54.10) and senior Silvester Harrison III beating out the Longhorns’ fifth runner in 13th (25:59.2).
“The team has been training and racing with confidence since last season in smaller meets where there are really only four teams competing to win out of the 10 teams in the race,” said Slekis. “I think this recognition will be the final push they needed to go out and race with that same level of confidence at a larger meet like Pre-Nationals in less than two weeks where there are 10-20 really competitive teams all vying to score at large points.”
The women’s squad bounced back with a third-place finish at the Texas Invitational behind two top 15 finishers in senior Magdalena Escobar (18:52.7) and junior Shauna Pali (19:09.2). In the South Central regional rankings, the women moved up two spots to 10th.
2015 Cross Country National Poll
Others Receiving Votes: Illinois 19, Georgia 11, Northern Arizona 10, Boise State 10, Eastern Kentucky 10, Tulsa 10, Arizona State 9, Dartmouth 9, Virginia Tech 8, Washington 7, Florida State 6, North Texas 3, Purdue 3, Providence 2, Eastern Michigan 2, New Mexico 1
