Rain didn’t stop Texas cross country from having dominant weekend

Texas men’s and women’s cross country had stellar season-opening performances at the Floyd Farms Invitational in Lampasas, Texas, on Friday.

Despite the poor weather, both te-ams ended the day with 15 points, the best possible team score.

“At the end of the day, it’s a cross country course, so we’re not expecting perfect conditions,” freshman Kai McCullough said.

The Longhorn men crossed the finish line as one group, taking the first seven places in the 5K race. Only eight-tenths of a second separated the seven runners.

The Longhorns summarized their focus in one word: consistency.

After training together throughout the offseason, the opening meet allowed them to test their fitness and become more comfortable racing as a group, especially with several freshmen running for Texas for the first time.

“It was good to race with the freshmen for the first time,” senior Zain Hamdani said. “It was good to build that.”

Sophomore Aidan Torres earned the individual victory with a time of 16:15.3, with Hamdani finishing milliseconds behind with the same official time. Senior Hudson Benn-ett placed third with a time of 16:15.4, followed by McCullough with 16:15.9.

Sophomore Joaquin De La Cruz and freshman Griffen Saacke tied for fifth with 16:16.0. Freshman Colby Huntress finished one-tenth of a second later to secure seventh.

“(The rain) made the course pretty muddy, so gripping was a little tough out there, especially on the hills,” Hamdani said. “We were sliding around a little bit, but I think we got the job done.”

The Texas women were equally dominant, taking the first five places in their 5K race. Senior Aishling Callanan crossed the finish line first in 19:11.2. Junior Isabel Conde de Frankenberg followed with a 19:15.4.

Freshmen Lili Denton and Cara Sims finished third and fourth in 19:42.4 and 19:52.2. Junior Grace Kowalski closed out the Longhorns’ top five by finishing fifth in 19:54.1.

“Today showed that we’re pretty fit and ready for the season,” Torres said.

Texas will travel to College Station on Friday for the Texas A&M Invitational, where both teams will look to build on what they accomplished in Lampasas.

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