Cross Country Heads to Houston for Rice Invite
9/8/2016 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – The Stephen F. Austin men’s and women’s teams will have wheels up late Friday afternoon as they head out to Houston. The Rice Invite is set for Friday evening. The women’s race is starting at 6:15 p.m. CT, and the men are to follow right after at 6:45 p.m. CT.
The competitors for the 2016 Rice Invite derive from 13 different schools:
Houston (M/F)
Houston Baptist (M/F)
Incarnate Word (M/F)
LSU (M/F)
Louisiana-Lafayette (M/F)
McNeese St. (M/F)
Prairie View A&M (M/F)
Rice (M/F)
Stephen F. Austin (M/F)
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (M/F)
Texas A&M International (M/F)
Texas Southern (F)

Texas St. (M/F)
SFA Cross Country Coach Clark has eight men competing in SFA uniform. Leading them will be redshirt freshman Brandt Preston, who finished sixth in the Lumberjack Pre-Conference meet. Other known names will be redshirt sophomore Larry Deramus, redshirt sophomore Matt Farina, redshirt junior Topper Markham and redshirt junior Quinlin McGregor.
Coach Clark will have three men running unattached, therefore these young men can have the collegiate racing experience under their belt. They are Redshirt freshman Chris Shirk, freshman Evan Barron, and freshman Caleb Pickett.
For the women, there will be seven runners in uniforms with two runners unattached. Familiar faces for the Ladyjacks will be, the fourth place finisher from the Lumberjack Pre-Conference meet freshman Caelidh Ross, redshirt junior Rana Ryan, junior Brittany Innis, senior Mary Luster, and senior Samantha Ottoman.
Running unattached to get their feet wet at collegiate racing will be freshman Ariaan Cnossen and Taryn Suratt.
The last time the Lumberjacks competed in the Rice Invite was in 2013 when the women, lead by former Ladyjack Shelby Pesek, clenched second place. And the men finished sixth in the meet.
After the weekend, SFA will be on the road again out to Stillwater, Oka. for the OSU Jamboree on Sept. 24th.
-SFA-
