SAN ANTONIO – The University of the Incarnate Word women's and men's cross country teams competed in the Chili Pepper XC Festival meet in Fayetteville, Arkansas Friday, September 29. The men's team picked up a third-place finish behind Griffin Neal who placed ninth running in the 8k finishing with a time of 24:28 and Alexandre Fentizon added a top 20 finish with a time of 24:44.
When talking about the men's team Head Coach Dr. Derek Riedel had this to say, "When the gun went off the temperature was 90 degrees, and it was sunny and moderately humid with no breeze. It was tough conditions for a hard 8k. What impressed me so much was the grit and resolve the men raced with. They train, prepare and race like they are a top team and it's coming together for them. They race knowing that if they can't be their best someone on the team will step up to fill the gap and keep the train rolling. Our primary reason for traveling here was to see the NCAA South Central regional course and have a comfort level ahead of the regional championships in November. We accomplished that and raced hard and despite the conditions still averaged under 25 minutes for the 8k."
Running in the 5k, Ashlyn Royal led the women's team finishing 20th with a time of 17:29 as the team took 23rd out of 33 teams.
"We have a young team so any opportunity we get to gain experience in a large field against regionally and nationally ranked teams we are going to take advantage of that. I'm proud of how far Ashlyn has come in the last year. Her fortitude and training showed through with her strong top 20 finish and good PR. I felt like Danielle, Alyssa and Andrea ran strong and steady races. We know what we need to work on over the next 27 days to be ready for conference and we look forward to the opportunity to put in that work! They are a unified group of ladies so I'm confident they'll get there together."
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