Aggie Cross Country to Host Arturo Barrios Invitational – Texas A&M Athletics

BRYAN – COLLEGE STATION, Texas – The Texas A&M men’s and women’s cross country teams host the Arturo Barrios Invitational on Saturday at 9 a.m. at the Dale Watts Cross Country Course.
 
“When we built this course, we envisioned having big meets on it,” distance coach Wendel McRaven said. “This is the kind of meet that we want to host. I’m really excited that we have the opportunity to host a meet like this and have the advantages of racing at home.”
 

Arturo Barrios, the meet’s namesake, is a member of the Texas A&M Athletics Hall of Fame. In his time in Aggieland, Barrios set school records in the 3,000m steeplechase, 5,000m, and 10,000m races to go along with his three Southwest Conference Championship titles and silver medal in the 10,000m race at the 1985 NCAA Championships. After graduating from Texas A&M, Barrios set world records in the 10,000m, 20,000m, and one-hour run. His marks still stand as the Mexican national records.
 

“Arturo Barrios is the greatest distance runner to come through Texas A&M,” McRaven said. “He had great success both collegiately and post-collegiately. When I was in college, if you paid attention to distance running at all, you knew who Arturo Barrios was. He means a lot to this program, and we hope that he feels honored by this meet. He’s an Aggie legend and we want to do everything we can to honor him well.”
 
Two weeks ago, the Aggies competed at the Paul Short Run hosted by Lehigh University, the men placed 16^th while the women finished 19^th. Junior Eric Casarez led the men with his sixth-place finish, covering the 8k course in 23:14.2. Casarez was followed by Junior Chandon Chhikara, who clocked 23:46.5. On the women’s side, seniors Grace Plain (20:32.7), Julia Abell (20:41.5) and Abbey Santoro (20:53.5) led the way for the Aggies, all eclipsing the 21-minute barrier on the 6k course.
 
Forty men’s teams and 42 women’s teams are entered in the meet. Making the in-state trip are Baylor, Houston, Rice, SMU (women), TCU and Texas Tech. Florida, LSU and Vanderbilt come in from the SEC, while Ohio State brings competition from the Big 10. The Buckeyes women’s team comes in ranked 24^th in the nation. Also in attendance is Lipscomb, the returning champions from last…