The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Big 12 Cross Country Championships
Hall captures first Big 12 Cross Country title in Texas program history
11.02.2013 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Marielle Hall, Megan Siebert, Ryan Dohner and Craig Lutz earn All-Big 12 honors on Saturday in Waco.
Women's 6K Results | Men's 8K Results | Photo gallery
WACO, Texas – University of Texas senior women's cross country runner Marielle Hall took home the individual title at the 2013 Big 12 Cross Country Championships on Saturday morning at Cottonwood Creek Golf Course. Hall's first-place finish was the first ever for a Longhorn at the Big 12 league meet on both the men's and women's sides.
Hall won the 6,000-meter women's race with a career-best time of 19 minutes, 38.3 seconds, more than 10 seconds ahead of all other competitors. In her career, Hall now owns three of the seven top 10 finishes recorded by Texas women at Big 12s in program history and is also the only Longhorn runner on the women's side to record multiple top 10 results at the meet.
"I'm super excited," Hall said. "Texas is all about history, tradition and upholding that, so just to be able to contribute to that is such an honor."
Hall led the Longhorn women to a fourth-place finish in the team standings with 121 points behind first-place Iowa State (35 points), second-place West Virginia (104), and third-place Oklahoma State (116).
Megan Siebert placed 12th overall in 21:03.0 to earn her second All-Big 12 honor and Brittany Marches was not far behind in 19th (21:22.9). Kaleigh Ervin and Alaina Perez finished back-to-back in 46th (22:02.4) and 47th (22:07.8) and Katie Ruhala rounded out the scoring for UT in 54th (22:22.5). Rachel St. Martin placed 65th in 22:54.3 and Marissa Lee crossed in 68th (23:00.7).
The Texas men finished third in the team standings with 80 points led by Ryan Dohner in fourth place and Craig Lutz in sixth. Dohner posted an 8,000m time of 22:57.1 and Lutz ran 23:13.8. It was the third-straight top-10 performance at the league meet for Lutz and the second-straight for Dohner. They both earned All-Big 12 honors for finishing among the top 15 individuals.
Also scoring for the Horns were Mark Pinales, who crossed 21st with a time of 23:47.4 along with Collin Smith in 25th (24:01.7) and Chris Galvin in 26th (24:02.0). Austin Roth (28th, 24:07.8), Eduardo Rodgriguez (33rd, 24:17.1), Will Nation (38th, 24:24.8) and Nate Moore (45th, 24:42.6) also competed.
The Oklahoma State men won its sixth straight conference title with 33 points and Iowa State (77 points) was second. Texas Tech's Kennedy Kithuka was crowned champion with an 8K time of 22:16.0
The championships portion of the 2013 season continues for both the men's and women's cross country teams on Friday, Nov. 15 when they return to Waco for the NCAA South Central Regional. Races will begin at 10 a.m. Central.
