Casarez Places Sixth at 48th Annual Paul Short Run – Texas A&M Athletics

BETHLEHEM, Pa.– Texas A&M’s Eric Casarez sixth-place finish paced the men to a 16^th place team finish, while Grace Plain led the women’s team to finish 19^th at the 48^th Annual Paul Short Run, Friday morning at the Goodman Campus Cross Country Course.
 
Casarez, a junior, made his way to the top pack of runners at the 5k mark, coming through in 14:33.9. Over the course of the next 3k, Casarez held his ground to finish the 8k race sixth out of 428 runners at 23:14.2. Casarez was followed by junior Chandon Chhikara (23:46.5), sophomore Jonathan Chung (24:02.9), senior Gavin Hoffpauir (24:14.5) and sophomore Joseph Benn (24:31.4).
 
“I was really encouraged with the men’s ability to fight back,” distance coach Wendel McRaven said. “We didn’t get the start we were hoping for, but they moved up well. I walked away from the race encouraged and excited for what lies ahead for the team.”
 
Over the last 4.4k of the women’s 6k race, Plain moved up 27 spots to place 66^th out of 426 runners. The senior trio of Plain (20:32.7), Julia Abell (20:41.5) and Abbey Santoro (20:53.5) were followed by sophomore Maddie Livingston (21:12.9) and freshman Kennady Fontenot (21:13.3) to round out the top five for the Aggie women.
 
“The women also didn’t get the start we were hoping for,” coach McRaven said, “but throughout the race their individual places just kept moving up. Every woman ran their fastest 6k ever. This was a good learning experience and I come out of it with more positives than negatives.
 
“It was a really good field,” McRaven said. “We came here to put ourselves in an uncomfortable situation and see some chaos so that when we get into the post-season we’re not overwhelmed. The goal was to learn and to grow. Walking away from the meet, I feel encouraged. We’ll grow from this and in two weeks we’ll have an opportunity to be even better.”
 
Next Up

The Texas A&M men’s and women’s cross country teams will host at the Arturo Barrios Invitational on October 15 at the Dale Watts Cross Country Course.
 

To learn more about Texas A&M Track & Field/Cross Country, log on to 12thMan.com and follow @aggietfxc.