SAN ANTONIO – The University of the Incarnate Word women's and men's cross country teams picked up first-place finishes in the UIW Twilight on Friday, August 30, at the Classics Elite Soccer Complex. Freshman Chiara Judis led the women's side with a third-place finish, while Jared Laverty finished in second to lead the men's side. This year's meet included two power five schools (Houston University and Baylor University), conference foe Houston Christian, Texas State, Trinity University, and Our Lady of the Lake University. All results can be found here.
The new-look women's team had a great debut, with five finishing in the top 15. Judis (3rd), Vera Yohanna-Maisaje (9th), Oceane Cercueil (11th), Araceli Ford (12th), and Emily Torres (13th) were stellar in their first meet for the Cardinals.
"What a difference from last year," head coach Dr. Derek Riedel said following the meet. "I knew we needed an influx of confident and courageous ladies and we found a cohesive and supportive group of women who love to compete. I am so proud of the effort they put forward. We harped on having a tight pack and confidently moving throughout the race, and the ladies finished well. It was a nice start to the season."
The men's team handled its business, with all seven runners finishing in the top 12. Laverty (2nd), Alexandre Fetizon (4th), Eric Pineda (5th), Griffin Neal (6th), Kamron Loera (9th), James Butler (10th), and Ethan Malesich (12th) controlled the race from start to finish.
"We purposely trained through this meet, keeping the volume high and some of the guys did a workout the morning of to capture a big training window," said Riedel. "We wanted to be more conservative early and practice our pack mentality and focus on gaining confidence with a large pack. Our goal coming in was 18:30 average 1-7 and we accomplished that with an 18:17, a new 6K school record average. The men executed perfectly."
The Cardinals are back in action on September 13th at the UIW Invitational at Windcrest Golf Club.
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