Sept. 5, 2007

The University of Texas-Pan American men's and women's cross country teams will head to San Marcos, TX, to compete in the Rice/Texas State Cross Country Invitational hosted by Texas State University on Saturday (Sept. 8).

The Broncs and Lady Broncs are coming off four top-10 finishes at their first meet of the season at the Islanders Relays where the men claimed fourth, sixth, and ninth-places while the women claimed a seventh-place finish.

"I felt like the squad did well for their first meet, said head men's and women's cross country coach Dennis Darling. "Our men showed a pretty strong showing, we had three teams finish in the top-10 and our women did pretty well but we still have some work to do. Overall I think that both teams did very well."

The tandem of Luis Nava (La Joya, TX/La Joya H.S.) and J.J. Hernandez (San Juan, TX/San Juan H.S.) are coming off a fourth-place finish at the Islander Relays in which they ran a time of 41:09.

Newcomers Angel Ramirez (McAllen, TX/McAllen H.S.) and Roly Vela (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg North H.S.) had an outstanding performance in the first meet of their careers where they placed sixth with a time of 41:48.

"Angel and Roly were very competitive and I like that competitive spirit from them. They showed a lot of fire and that's what I like to see. I think Roly and Angel are going to be a very good addition to the team," added Darling.

For the Lady Broncs, Rose Escovedo (Edinburg, TX/Edinburg North H.S.) and Carolina Izaguirre (Brownsville, TX/Hanna H.S.) led all UTPA teams as they finished in seventh-place with a time of 28:56 in Corpus Christi last week.

The Rice/Texas State Invitational will feature University, High School, and Junior high divisions (Junior Bobcat Challenge #1) (U, V, JV, JH). The collegiate men will run a five-mile course at 8 a.m. with the collegiate women to follow on a three-mile course at 8:35 at the Gary Job Corps facility.

UTPA Sports Information