Oct. 14, 2006

The University of Texas-Pan American women's cross country team finished 11th overall while the Broncs finished 36th overall at the Brooks Pre-Nationals Meet hosted by Indiana State University in Terre Haute, IN, on Saturday (Oct. 14).

The Lady Broncs finished 11th out of 13 teams in the Women's Open Meet as newcomer Carolina Izaguirre (Brownsville, TX/Hanna H.S.) was the team's top performer as she crossed the end line in 45th place with a time of 23"07 in the 6,000-meter race.

Ashley Perez (Falfurrias, TX/Falfurrias H.S.), Sonya Rivera (Brownsville, TX/Hanna H.S.) and Karla Hernandez (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg H.S.) all crossed the finish line within seconds of one another with times of 23:24, 23:27 and 23:33 en route to earning 62nd, 63rd and 65th-place honors. Sara Rodriguez (Pharr, TX/Valley View H.S.) crossed the end line with a mark of 23:38 for 69th place, which tallied the Lady Broncs score at 304 for the meet.

"I was very happy with the women's team because even though their final results weren't impressive, each one of them broke a personal record for the 6,000-meters. This was the first time that a lot of them had raced in a big-time meet like this, and I thought that they handled themselves very well," said head coach Ricky Vaughn.

The Broncs struggled throughout the morning as they finished 36th out of 36 teams in the White Men's Team Meet. Freshman Omar Doria (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg North H.S.) was the Broncs' top runner as he crossed the end line in 25:58 in the 8,000-meter race en route to earning 205th-place laurels.

Alex Moncivais (Pharr, TX/Texas A&M-Kingsville) posted a time of 26:33 in the 8,000-meter race for 231st-place while Luis Nava (La Joya, TX/La Joya H.S.) crossed the finish line in 233rd overall at the 26:39 mark. Juan Davila (Donna, TX/Donna H.S.) and Wally Gonzalez (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg North H.S.) crossed the end line in 26:43 and 27:00, respectively, which tallied their total team score to 1,144 in the morning.

"I was not happy at all with them because they weren't focused, they didn't compete and they didn't execute the strategy that we had. This was an extremely poor showing so hopefully they will learn from this experience and carry it over in the final two races," Vaughn concluded.

The Broncs and Lady Broncs will both be back in action at the National Independent Championships in Fort Wayne, IN, on Oct. 29th.

UTPA Sports Information