The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Longhorn Invitational
Pickle, Raines register wins at Longhorn Invitational
10.02.2015 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Women's Cross Country wins home finale, Men take second
AUSTIN, Texas – Strong individual performances propelled the Texas men's and women's cross country teams in their final home meet of the season, with sophomore Jacob Pickle and junior Sandie Raines each finishing in first place in their respective races at the Spicewood Course at Balcones Country Club in Austin.
"Sandie winning is always a good thing. Whenever you can win a race like that is always good, especially in front of the home crowd," said Coach Brad Herbster. "Jacob really put forth a good effort and coming back is always impressive. Both of those young men and women ran fine and did a good job up front."
The Texas women placed all seven of their runners in the top 15 in the 5K, finishing in first in a competitive field with a score of just 23 points. Raines was solid throughout the race but stormed into the lead in the last 1,000 meters, finishing in the top spot for the first time this season with a time of 18:18.00. Freshman Alex Cruz was close behind with a second-place finish and a time of 18:21.70.
The men were in front of the pack throughout the majority of the 8K race, but the North Texas squad just barely edged out the Longhorns by a single point as the Mean Green tallied 40 points to UT's 41. Jacob Pickle led Texas with a first-place finishing time of 25:21.50, while senior Brady Turnbull and freshman Alex Rodgers rounded out the top three Longhorn finishers with times of 25:33.50 and 25:45.80, respectively.
Texas will be on the road for the rest of the season and will begin preparing for the Pre-National Invitational in Louisville on October 17.
Texas Quotes
Coach Brad Herbster
On the women's team sticking together over the last 1,000 meters: Today they did a lot better job. Sticking together through the front half and then going that last K was the goal. Having Sandie win the race and come from behind and run a pretty conservative race up front and then turning a 5K race into a 1K race is always challenging, but it's good to see Sandie and Alex get up there and do well.
On the men's race: I knew going in that we were running in flats and we're going to take it out slow. We had a few people who were sick, but North Texas is good. You can't take anything away from them, we just have to do a better job of competing in that middle of the race and make sure that we're closing out better than what we did today.
On looking forward to the Pre-National Invitational: Going into Pre-Nats, the guys… this is a work-through week for us, so we don't taper anything and cut mileage back to try to peak for this race. Now we start getting into the championship part, and that's where you really increase the intensity in some things and sharpen up. We'll be really good on the men's side and the women's side going forward. Both areas we just have to continue to work and work as a group and we'll continue to move forward.
Junior Sandie Raines
On the race: I felt great today. Yeah, it was really easy, well as easy as this course is. We just went out tempo the first 4k and the last k we got to open it up a little. So it felt good.
On the team performance: This week was much better. We were conservative the first 4k and we all worked together as a group. I just think it was a big improvement from last week as whole.
Sophomore Jacob Pickle
On the race: I was pretty happy with it, just to get out here and represent on the home course is always a great opportunity.
On team performance: For the team we've got a lot of things we've got to change going into the championship season. But we will be back and definitely be stronger at our next race.
On upcoming pre-nationals: We are just going to focus on little things…. getting in the training room, doing extra drills, more sleep, getting on top of all the little things that people take for granted. Packing that group up and really bringing out that Texas fight.
On Coach Herbster's advice: You are always representing the University of Texas so you have to do it at a high level.
Players Mentioned
