Taylor Nabs Top Ten Finish at OLLU Invite

SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- The Texas Lutheran cross country program competed in the OLLU Invite Friday morning in San Antonio with the men finishing third with 66 points and the women finishing fourth with 71 points.

The men were led by a pair of freshmen and sophomore Carlos Cura (Midkiff/Rankin). Cura led the way for Texas Lutheran placing sixth overall in 23:49.0, followed by Lucas Falcon (Victoria/Victoria East) placing 14th in 24:50.5 and Cole Schuetz (Corpus Christi/London) two places behind in 24:54.0.

FollOwing them were Isaiah Arriaga (Sugar Land/Dulles) in 27th (25:50.6), Koby Green (San Antonio/Clark) in 32nd (26:19.4), and Gabriel Ceballos (San Antonio/Smithson Valley) in 36th (26:43.1).

On the women's side, Texas Lutheran was led by Caeli Taylor (Tilden/McMullen County) with a seventh place finish in 24:02.3. Mackenzie Payne (Celina/Frisco Heritage) finished in 24:24.0 - just missing a top ten finish - finishing in 11th place. Gianna Kennedy (El Paso/El Paso) was third for Texas Lutheran, finishing 15th at 24:36.0. She was followed by Emma Etzler (Hallettsville/Hallettsville) in 17th (24:47.1), Brenna Iannelli (La Grange/La Grange) in 21st, LeeAnndrea Canas (Corpus Christi/West Oso) in 23rd (26:02.0), and Aaliyah Leal (Ingleside/Aransas Pass) in 26th to cap the scoring seven.

Coach Holland's comments: "It was a great day for racing and we took advantage of it and the flat course. The women ran a lot of personal bests and we continue to improve each week. Disappointing to miss out on third place to OLLU by a couple points; we were right there!

For the men, we continue to improve on our racing. Carlos (Cura) had the opportunity to run up front and practiced different racing tactics, which was good for him as we get closer to the conference championships. Many of the guys also PR'ed like the women (after you convert it to an actual 8K). Great to see them gaining confidence!"

FULL RACE RESULTS CAN BE FOUND AT: https://tlubulldogs.com/sports/wxc/2022-23/schedule

Texas Lutheran travels to Riverside, California, to compete in the Highlander Invitational on Oct. 15th for one final tuneup ahead of the 2022 SCAC Championships later this month that will be held in Georgetown, Texas.

For all updates on Texas Lutheran Cross Country, follow @tluxctf on Instagram as well as all official TLU Athletics accounts.