Posted: Jan 23, 2021
Silva grabs sixth-place finish as Bulldogs place third at UST Celt Invitational
TOMBALL, Texas -- In Texas Lutheran's first official cross country meet of the academic year, Bulldog first-year runner Caeli Taylor won the University of St. Thomas (Texas) Invitational on Saturday morning and led the Bulldogs to a third-place team finish.
The TLU Men also registered a third-place team finish.
Taylor (Tilden/McMullen County) won the 5K race in a time of 20 minutes, 19.1 seconds.
"It was exciting finally to be able to race other athletes," said Darlene Holland, TLU's head coach for men's and women's cross country. "We've been training all fall and winter break and finally were able to test ourselves."
"Being led by two freshmen on each squad bodes well for the future, and for Caeli to go out and win the whole thing was incredible. The time doesn't indicate how she ran. She was alone pretty much after the first mile."
The TLU Women scored 57 points as a team. St. Thomas won the meet with 40 points. McMurry was second, with 44, and Southwestern was fourth with 82.
In addition to Taylor's win and top-10 finish, first-year runner Mackenzie Payne (McKinney/Heritage) came in seventh with a time of 21:14.50.
The TLU Men scored 58 points. McMurry and St. Thomas each scored 48 points in the men's team competition, but McMurry took the meet title by virtue of a tiebreaker.
TLU edged Southwestern by one point in the race for third place.
Freshman runner Abraham Silva (Seguin/Seguin) registered a sixth-place finish, completing the four-mile race in 23:19.00.
Fellow freshmen Kevin Vazquez-Arredondo (Del Valle/Del Valle) and Matthew Hoffmann (San Antonio/Clark) posted finishes of 12th and 13th, respectively.
TLU's next meet, and its final race of the season, is the Southern College Athletic Conference Championship. The conference championship is scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 6 in Irving, Texas. The meet will take place on the University of Dallas' campus course.