WICHITA FALLS, TEXAS – A new weekend presented a new opportunity for Patriots cross country after the tough showing last week. This week's event at Midwestern State would be a great benchmark for UT Tyler, and both teams answered the call.
For the men's team, they posted their top finish of the 2022 season with a second place run that saw them collect just 56 placement points and join meet winner Western New Mexico as the only two programs to earn less than 100 points on the day.
The Patriots total time came at 2:12:13.9 and finished just under four minutes behind Western New Mexico. The average time on the day for UT Tyler was 26:26.8.
Just as he has all season,
Landon Thornton led the Patriots with a strong top five finish. Thornton came through with a fourth place run on a time of 25:50.3. He would be the only runner in the top five not from Western New Mexico.
Just 29.6 seconds behind Thornton came fellow senior
Lorenzo Chavez. Chavez joined Thornton in the top 10 at 26:19.9 for an eighth place finish overall.
Up next for UT Tyler was freshman
Jason Alcala who continues to put up solid results. He placed 11
th overall with a time of 26:25.7 and just 5.9 seconds behind Chavez. Alcala finished just .9 seconds ahead of senior
Jack Gipson who put up a strong run himself to place 13
th overall after a time of 26:26.6.
The final finisher for UT Tyler was
Seth Andrade. Andrade placed 20
th overall with a time of 27:11.6.
For the Patriots women, they would match their highest finish of the season for the third time in 2022 after earning a fourth place mark with 128 points. They would place behind meet winner Midwestern State, Western New Mexico, and Angelo State. UT Tyler totaled 1:42:25.5 on the course while running an average time of 20:29.1.
Pacing the Patriots women was freshman
Marigold Hunter. She earned a 16
th place finish after running a time of 20:07.0. Hunter would outrun teammate
Tiffany Vargas by just 5.2 seconds as Vargas placed 18
th. Vargas ran a time of 20:12.2 to earn 18 more points for UT Tyler.
Behind the pair of Hunter and Vargas was
Charlisa Teagle. Teagle would place 28
th overall after a time of 20:33.3 to finish just 21.3 seconds behind Vargas. Teagle was followed by
Marissa Agee who posted a 31
st place finish. Agee posted a time of 20:42.5 and finished 8.8 seconds behind Teagle.
Rounding out the scoring for the Patriots was
Calista Segura. Segura placed 35
th on the day and totaled a time of 20:50.6.
UT Tyler will now set their sights on their final regular season meet of the year at the DBU Old Glory Gallup hosted by DBU. It will be familiar territory for UT Tyler as they have already run in Dallas, Texas earlier this season. That race will take place next Saturday, October 15
th.
