No. 28 Golden Hurricane Men Put Seven Runners in Top 10; Freshman Leal Lead Aggie Women in Collegiate Debut

By Keenan Gray of DyeStat

The Tulsa men and Texas A&M women delivered strong performances on Friday at the Cowboy Preview in Stillwater, Oklahoma, winning their respective team races to open up the collegiate cross country season.

Tulsa, ranked No. 28 in the USTFCCCA Men’s Preseason National Coaches' Poll, put seven runners in the top 10 to score 26 points to beat Texas A&M by 33 points.

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Shay McEvoy, an All-American at the 2022 NCAA Cross Country Championships, led the Golden Hurricane charge with a second-place run of 14 minutes, 59.01 seconds for the 5-kilometer race, with Chris McLeod (15:09.87, 4th) and Luke Birdseye (15:10.91, 5th) joining him in the top five.

Ben Brown (15:12.02, 7th) and Charlie Kransnoff (15:12.88, 8th) rounded out the Tulsa scoring and Luke Lambert (15:13.68, 9th) and James Knockton (15:14.23, 10th) followed closely to close out the top 10.

Texas A&M put two runners in the top 10, with Zack Munger finishing third in 15:03.66 and Luca Santorum earning sixth in 15:11.58.

No. 3 Arkansas and No. 1 Oklahoma State, who didn’t run either of their top-end runners, finished third and fourth, respectively, in the team race.

Arkansas secured 85 points and an 11th-place effort from Elias Schremel in 15:17.42 to lead the way.

Ayden Grenados finished 15th overall for Oklahoma State in 15:26.89, leading a 97-point outing.

Oklahoma’s Thobias Cheruiyot won the individual title in 14:57.11. The Sooners scored 103 points to finish fifth in the team standings.

The Texas A&M women, ranked second in the USTFCCCA Women’s Preseason South Central Regional Rankings, held off host-Oklahoma State by seven points 39-46 for the win.

San Juanita Leal, a freshman from Edinburg North High in Texas, won the 3-kilometer race in her collegiate debut in 10:30.12 to put Texas A&M on top. Leal finished her prep career at the Brooks PR Invitational last spring, running 9:54.02 in the two-mile race.

Maddie Peters (10:44.45) and Megan Roberts (10:46.60) added to the scoring for Texas A&M with top 10 runs, finishing sixth and 10th.

Kennady Fontenot (10:54.58) earned 14th and Elise Smoot (10:58.67) picked up 15th to complete the Aggies scoring.

Grace Ping and Lauren Ping finished third and fourth, respectively, for the second-place Cowgirls, who are ranked No. 15 in the USTFCCCA Women’s Preseason National Coaches' Poll, running 10:42.42 and 10:42.68.

Autumn Michalski and Gentry Turner, both freshman for the Cowgirls but ran unattached, finished among top 10 individuals, with Michalski running 10:43.36 for fifth and Turner running 10:45.51 for seventh.

Tulsa finished with 60 points, earning top 10 finishes from Robyn Kowalski (10:46.09, 8th) and Amy Morefield (10:46.50, 9th).

Oklahoma’s Megan Johnson picked up a second-place finish in 10:37.73 for the fourth-place Sooners, who finished with 80 points.