Cross Country Preview - Texas A&M Kingsville

By Don Garrett

2012 Cross Country Preview: Texas A&M-Kingsville

WOMEN – 8^th out of 9 teams in 2011, they were 95 points behind 7^th place Incarnate Word and 26 ahead of TAMU-Commerce. While Kingsville, has seen a huge improvement from their overall track program and a modest improvement in the men’s cross country team, it has been slower going for the women’s team. They did not score a single distance point in the LSC track meet last fall. This year, they return everyone who ran last year in the LSC XC meet, plus several new faces, but none with the proven ability to contribute immediately. We could still see them climb a place or 2 simply due more experience

LOST FROM LAST SEASON – absolutely no one

RETURNEES (with their 2011 place in parentheses):

• ·         Rebecca Jimenez (39^th) – but did not run in the LSC track meet
• ·         Marissa Acosta (41^st) – and she was 14^th in the steeple on the track
• ·         Briana Villareal (43^rd) – later in the spring, she was 20^th in the 1500
• ·         Rowena Trevino (56^th) – did not run in the spring track meet
• ·         Ashley Nunez (57^th) – also did not run in the LSC track meet last spring
• ·         Meagan Lindsey (62^nd) – 20^th in the 5K on the track
• ·         Anna Richburg (64^th) – 18^th in the 800 and 27^th in the 1500 last spring
• ·         Tezna Roy – did not run the XC meet in 2011 (she did in 2010), but was 13^th in the 800 last spring
• ·         Danica Huerta  - did not run in the LSC XC meet, but on the track she was 16^th in the 800 and 23^rd in the 1500

NEWCOMERS

• ·         Lucy Granados – freshman from Alice – 8^th in the Region IV-4A 800, she is more of a 400/800 runner (she was 4^th in the District 31-4A 400) than a true distance runner, but interesting potential
• ·         Janae Lewis – freshman from San Antonio Stevens – while a student at 1A San Antonio Stacey, she placed 7^th in the 1A 800 at the state meet. After her move to Stevens, she was 5^th in the DIst 27-5A XC and 5^th in the 800.
• ·         Marisa Reyes – redshirt freshman from Corpus Christi West Oso – in 2011, she won the District 31-3A in both the 1600 and 3200
• ·         Bianca Pena – freshman from Eagle Pass – 8^th in the District 29-5A 800
• ·         Victoria Bankes – freshman from Schertz Clemens – only 39^th in the District 27-4A XC

MEN – finished 7^th in 2011, a scant 2 points behind Tarleton and an equal 2 points ahead of Cameron.  The Javelinas lost their top runner for the past 3 years, Kiya Dandena. They bring back lots of bodies from last year and hunted up a lot of newcomers. The loss of a great runner of Dandena will have to be offset by a combination of improvement from the returnees and hopefully, 2-3 of the newcomers coming through with solid seasons.

LOST FROM LAST SEASON

• ·         Kiya Dandena – 2^nd in the LSC XC, he came back to finish 2^nd in the LSC 10K on the track and complete his career with a 5^th in the 5K. Kiya was the face of TAMU-K distance running for the past 3-4 years.
• ·         Greg Carmona – 66^th in the LSC XC meet

RETURNEES (with last year’s place in parentheses)

• ·         Andre Fuqua (24^th) – on the track, he finished just out of the points, finishing 9^th in the steeple, an event in which he scored in 2011
• ·         Brett Arredondo (29^th) – but did not run in the track meet (teams are limited as to the number of athletes who can come to the LSC track meet and Kingsville went heavily with sprinters, jumpers and throwers in 2012
• ·         Jorge Alanis (50^th) – did not run in the track meet
• ·         Andres Rivas (56^th) – also did not run in the spring track meet
• ·         Josh Prado (57^th) – he did get to run in the track meet and garnered 5^th in the 800, but he is more of a 800 runner than a true long-distance guy
• ·         Calvin Scharf (70^th) – ran pretty well early in the XC season after a transfer from College of the Ozarks, but tapered off late in the XC season. Could be more of a factor this year.
• ·         Chris Garza (72^nd) – did not run at the LSC track meet
• ·         Ryan Richardson – did not compete at the LSC XC meet, but did run last spring and was 12^th in the 800

NEWCOMERS

• ·         Michael Idziak – originally from Poland, he ran this past year for the outstanding military prep school, Fork Union in Virginia and at the Virginia Independent Schools state meet, he won the 800 and was 2^nd in the 1600. He could potentially be a huge addition to this team
• ·         Ty Ramos – freshman from Moulton – at the 1A state meet in 2011, he placed  6^th in the 1600 and 3200, but did not make it back to Austin in 2012 as he finished 3^rd in the Region IV-1A 3200 and 5^th in the 1600
• ·         Patrick Alexshonis – freshman from A&M Consolidated – 54^th in the Region II-5A XC last fall and 5^th in the District 12-5A 800 in the spring
• ·         Kaleb Neptune – a redshirt freshman from Odessa HS – won the District 3-5A 3200 and was 2^nd in the 1600 in 2011 before a redshirt year at TAMU-K in 2012
• ·         Jacob Luna – a redshirt freshman from Vanderbilt Industrial HS – before redshirting in 2012, he almost made the state track meet after finishing 3^rd in the Region IV-2A 1600, as well as 5^th in 3200
• ·         Richard Hernandez – freshman from Ingleside – at the District 3-3A meet , 2^nd in the 3200 and 3^rd in the 1600
• ·         Emanuel Ibanez – freshman from Kingsville King – 3^rd in the Dist 31-4A in 2012 and in 2011 he was 5^th in the 1600 and 6^th in the 3200 in the same district
• ·         Justin Ibanez – freshman from San Diego (TX) – at the Region IV-2A meet in 2011, he was 3^rd in the 3200 and 7^th in the 1600
• ·         Nick Rios – freshman from Corpus Christi Calallen – 3^rd in the District 31-4A 1600 and 3200
• ·         Jesus Tijerina – freshman from Laredo Alexander – 3^rd in the District 29-5A 800
• ·         Gustavo Pedraza – redshirt freshman from Laredo Nixon who was 9^th in the District 29-5A 1600, 3200 in 2011