SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The goal for the Texan and Lady Texan cross country teams this season was to bring home some hardware from the NJCAA cross country championships. Although they fell short of their ultimate goal of winning a national title or two, the teams have nothing to hang their heads about, according to head coach Chris Beene.
"They ran their hearts out and left it all on the course," Beene said about both of his teams. "As a coach that is all you can ask for and I could not be any prouder than I am right now."
The Lady Texans were eight points away from knocking off Cowley College, the top ranked team the majority of the year, when they finished the meet with 83 points.
Freshman Natoya Goule ran another fantastic race and once again led the Lady Texans as she crossed the line as the overall runner-up with a time of 17-minutes and 39-seconds on the 5,000-meter course.
Sophomores Lisa Forsberg and Kadian Dunkley were the only returners from last year's team and both dramatically improved upon their performances from last year as they finished sixth and seventh overall with times of 18:15 and 18:16, respectively.
Tiffany Matthews was the fourth Lady Texan to cross the line and she did so in 28th place overall and with a time of 19:08. Kirsten Taylor, SPC's final scoring runner finished 43rd with a time of 19:30.
Levelland native Leeann Cardona (19:33) also competed very well as she finished 45thoverall.
Kemoy Campbell was the runner-up finisher of the men's race. Campbell completed the 8,000-meter course in a season best time of 23:54.
David Westbury and Roblet Muhudin each finished inside the top-15 when they crossed the line in 11th and 13th place, respectively. Westbury's time was 25:31, while Muhudin finished in 25:38.
Joey Villarreal (26:21) and Isacc Placencia (26:29) rounded out the team scoring for SPC with 45th and 52nd place finishes. Jonathan Lira (27:38) also competed, finishing 116th.
On top of fantastic team and individual performances by each athlete, the Texans and Lady Texans also bring home six all-American awards for the performances of Goule, Forsberg, Dunkley, Campbell, Westbury, and Muhudin.
The SPC distance runners have one more meet on their schedule and will compete next weekend in the NJCAA Half-Marathon championships in Overland Park, Kansas. The Texans are the defending champions in the event.