The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Women's Cross Country preview: Johnny Morris UH Invite
09.02.2010 | XC: Women_Old, Track & Field / Cross Country
Sept. 2, 2010
Meet Info
When: Friday, Sept. 3 2010
Race Time: 6:45 p.m. Central
Venue: University of Houston Intramural Fields, Houston, Texas
Course Distance: 3200m
-The Texas Women's Cross Country team, under the direction of fifth-year coach Steve Sisson, will open its 2010 campaign at the Johnny Morris Invitational, hosted by the University of Houston. The meet will take place on Friday, Sept. 3, at 6:45 p.m. CT at the UH Intramural Fields.
-Running for the Longhorns in Houston will be seniors Megan Vasquez and Jordan Clark-Mand, juniors Mia Behm, Julie Amthor, and Ginny Simon, sophomore Heather Canizales and redshirt sophomore Laleh Mojtabaeezamani and freshmen Brittany Marches, Megan Siebert, and Sara Sutherland.
-The Longhorns have shown great early-season success under the guidance of Sisson, taking home the team title in the season-opening meet for each of the last five years. The Longhorns built off of that success in 2009, winning the first three meets the season. After tallying 16 points at Texas State last year, the Longhorns followed up with totals of 28 and 15 points at the Islander Splash and Incarnate Word Invitational, respectively.
-UT hopes to capitalize on experience gained last season, including a strong showing at the NCAA South Central Region Championships where senior Betzy Jimenez and now junior Mia Behm individually qualified for the 2009 NCAA Cross Championships. The pair marked the first Longhorns to advance to the national meet since 2003. Despite the loss of Jimenez, Texas returns Behm along with senior Allison Mendez, who won two individual titles in 2009 and redshirt sophomore Laleh Mojtabaeezamani.
-Texas also adds an impressive freshman class to its roster that will look to make an immediate impact in 2010, highlighted by Marielle Hall out of Haddonfield, N.J. Hall, who finished 18th at the 2009 Foot Locker XC Nationals will be joined by a group of Texas runners in Megan Siebert (Dallas, Texas), Sara Sutherland (Dallas, Texas), Jessica Harper (Southlake, Texas) and Jourdan Ellis (Abilene, Texas).
-The next meet for the Longhorns will be the Ricardo Romo Invitational, which will take place Friday, Sept. 17, in San Antonio.