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Caeli Taylor
Caeli Taylor
Posted: Sep 10, 2022

Bulldogs Compete in 46th Annual Rice Invitational

Results Preview

HOUSTON, Texas -- Texas Lutheran Men's and Women's Cross Country took on the 46th Annual Rice Invitational on the campus of Rice University in Houston, Texas on Friday night. The field hosted teams from across NCAA divisions from the state of Texas - primarily Division-I. The field hosted Concordia (M/W), Houston (M/W), Houston Baptist (M/W), North American (W), Prairie View A&M (M/W), Rice (M/W), Sam Houston State (M/W), St. Thomas (M/W), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (M/W), Texas Lutheran (M/W), Texas Southern (M/W), Tulane (M/W), and Victoria College (M).

WOMEN'S RECAP

In the women's meet, it was Caeli Taylor (Tilden/McMullen County) leading the way finishing 39th in a field of 81 runners who finished the race and first amongst Division-III runners with a time of 16:57.1. Mackenzie Payne (Celina/Frisco Heritage), following right behind Taylor, finished 44th with a time of 17:12.6. Following Payne was freshman Emma Etzler (Hallettsville/Hallettsville) posting a time of 17:17.5.

Gianna Kennedy (El Paso/El Paso) and Brenna Iannelli (La Grange/La Grange) rounded out the top 5 for the Bulldogs. As a team, the Bulldogs averaged a time of 17:36 to finish sixth with a score of 195.

MEN'S RECAP

Freshman Lucas Falcon (Victoria/Victoria East) led the Bulldogs with a time of 22:42.7 to finish 50th overall and fifth amongst Division-III runners. Carlos Cura (Midkiff/Rankin) tallied a 58th place finish in a field of 85 runners - sixth amongst Division-III - with a time of 22:52.2.

Isaiah Arriaga (Sugar Land/Dulles) crossed with a time of 23:06.3 to finish 64th - eighth amongst Division-III runners.

Cole Schuetz (Corpus Christi/London) and Gabriel Ceballos (San Antonio/Smithson Valley) rounded out the top five for the Bulldogs. As a team, the Bulldogs averaged a time of 23:10.

Coach Holland's comments: "On the men's side, we definitely improved running as a team and raced better. With many young members, it's definitely a learning experience. We know what we need to work on for next time and it was great to see all the smiles after the race. The men will be upping their distance to 8K (5 miles) next weekend, so we will see how they do at the longer distance. We've been working hard and I believe they will start to see things fall into place as they gain more confidence.

The women ran a little over-distance 4K and competed well. I was happy to see them place 6th overall from the 12 teams represented (2 of the teams failed to finish 5 runners to score as a team). The scores are a little skewed as the North American team that had athletes sprinkled in before and between our athletes actually were lapped and instead of continuing around to do their final lap, ran into the finish chute. It messed up our overall scores. Didn't change our team's position overall, but we would not have been tied with St. Thomas. As a whole they definitely raced better than in our first competition. Looking forward to racing D3 teams at Southwestern next Saturday."

FULL RACE RESULTS CAN BE FOUND AT: https://www.tfrrs.org/results/xc/20459/46th_Rice_Inviational_XC_Meet_2022

Texas Lutheran will compete in the Southwestern University Showdown on Saturday, September 17, with the women's race starting at 8 AM and the men's meet starting at 8:45 AM. For all updates on Texas Lutheran Cross Country, follow @tluxctf on Instagram as well as all official TLU Athletics accounts.