The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Notre Dame Invitational
Cross Country falls behind late at Notre Dame
09.30.2016 | Track & Field / Cross Country
Longhorns unable to close strong against top teams
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Up against ranked opponents for the first time this season the Texas Cross Country team put together mixed results on Friday at the Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational. The No. 30-ranked men's team finished 13th while the women finished 16th.
Alex Rogers had a strong run for the men's squad and the women succeeded in running in a tight pack to cut back on scoring, but that pack was unable to move up the field over the final 1,000 meters of the race to position itself better in the standings.
"We're a little disappointed with the results. That's not the results we're looking for with that group," said Cross Country Coach Brad Herbster. "We've got to do a better job of finishing races. We've got the pieces. They look good in practice. We just got to transfer over to races."
The women opened the day against some of the top teams in the nation as three Top 5 teams toed the line and a total of six ranked teams. Mary Beth Hamilton crossed first for the Longhorns in 75th place with a time of 17:25.1 over the 5K race.
Only 12 seconds separated Hamilton from UT's fifth finisher. That spread from 1 to 5 was the best in the field, but Herbster wants to see that tight pack move up over the final leg of the race to post a better team score.
"The women, when you look at the results a 12-sec gap is a really good gap," Herbster said. "The problem is we needed to be 10 seconds ahead for each person. We were in a solid position early on we just fell back the last K. We weren't clicking the way we do in practice. We need to transfer what we do in practice over to the race."
On the men's side, Rogers led the way for the Longhorns with his 19th-place finish in 24:07.2 over the five miles. Robert Uhr was not too far behind in 34th and a time of 24:18.7 to give Texas two finishers in the top 35.
The gap between Uhr and the rest of UT's squad was too much to make an impact on the scoring.
"Today was a good start for Alex and Robert ran a really nice race, but we need to have our other five guys where Robert is," Herbster said. "Alex wanted to make top 10, and he was seven seconds off that, but seven seconds is the difference between reaching your goals and not in a race like this."
The Longhorns did pick off some ranked teams in the final standings. The men bested Florida State, who is tied with Texas for No. 30 in the nation. For the women, they were two spots ahead of No. 24 Vanderbilt.
Herbster said although he was disappointed with the end results, he believes his team can bounce back in two weeks at the Penn State Invitational.
"We'll get home, regroup and get ready for Penn State. The good news is we've got the guys and girls in the same place," Herbster said. "Today was a day that kind of looked like we took a step back and made some of the mistakes we made at this time last year. We want to make sure we're ready to go and bounce back. Penn State will be an opportunity to turn some things around."
Notre Dame Invitational Team Scores
Place: Team (ranking), pts
Women
1: Providence (1), 117
2: NC State (5), 149
3: Eastern Michigan (RV), 159
4: New Mexico (2), 166
5: Baylor, 169
6: Utah (28), 171
7: Mississippi (RV), 187
8: Notre Dame (16), 208
9: California (RV), 219
10: Minnesota (RV), 285
11: Air Force, 312
12: Purdue, 319
13: Boston College, 391
14: Florida State, 396
15: Alabama, 402
16: Texas (RV), 407
17: Weber State (RV), 409
18: Vanderbilt (24), 429
19: Oregon State, 438
20: North Carolina, 466
21: Clemson, 471
22: Texas A&M, 490
23: Nebraska, 663
Men
1: Mississippi (20), 83
2: UTEP (18), 99
3: Eastern Kentucky (9), 168
4: Providence (RV), 182
5: Illinois (RV), 183
6: Southern Utah (RV), 187
7: Washington State, 189
8: California, 216
9: Air Force, 242
10: Bradley, 268
11: NC State (23), 271
12: Eastern Michigan, 285
13: Texas (30), 323
14: Texas A&M (RV), 332
15: Florida State (30), 400
16: Purdue, 408
17: Alabama, 475
18: Weber State, 526
19: Baylor, 548
20: Nebraska, 557
21: UT Arlington, 567
22: North Carolina, 571
23: New Mexico, 575
24: Yale, 607
25: Notre Dame, 694
Texas Individuals
Place: Name, Time (pts)
Women
75: Mary Beth Hamilton, 17:25.1 (75)
77: Alex Cruz, 17:27.7 (77)
78: Abby Guidry, 17:28.5 (78)
88: Destiny Collins, 17:37.2 (88)
89: Meghan Lloyd, 17:37.3 (89)
151: Marissa Flournoy, 18:16.2 (n/a)
156: Jordan Welborn, 18:21.6 (n/a)
Men
19: Alex Rogers, 24:07.2 (19)
34: Robert Uhr, 24:18.7 (34)
62: Spencer Dodds, 24:36.4 (62)
101: Nate Moore, 24:56.1 (98)
114: Allen Sumrall, 25:04.4 (110)
118: Pedro Nasta, 25:07.3 (n/a)
122: Charles, Mills, 25:10.4 (n/a)
125: Eric Kroon, 25:12.8 (n/a)
191: Logan Emery, 26:24.7 (n/a)
Players Mentioned
