SAN ANTONIO, Texas - The Tigers took to the OLLU Invitational in force, both teams managing strong showings and claiming second place finishes, with both sides only beaten out by a single D2 school. While the course escaped any flood concerns, the race was relatively muddy, and the threat of rain could be felt with each breath that pulled in more water than air.
Still, they persevered, with the women kicking off the event at 8:00; led by
Bojana Rutkovszky (Austin, Texas / Anderson) who took 5th overall with a time of 23:39. Her running mate,
Theone Glosser (San Antonio, Texas / Reagan), would come in just 8 seconds later to take 6th.
Scarlett Berthelot (Tomball, Texas / Tomball) would finish next for the women with a massive 71 seconds PR.
Peyton Trost (Austin, Texas / McNeil) and
Carly Hunt (McKinney, Texas / Boyd) would round out the top 5 to secure a 2nd place finish and put on a strong show of depth for the Tiger women, with the top 4 finishers all coming from the ranks of underclassmen.
Following the women, the Tiger men headed to the start line at 8:45. Taking on a course that had been through the ringer already, they would battle through muddy patches to secure a second place finish of their own. Leading the charge for them would be
Chase Volger (Allen, Texas / Allen) in a time of 27:34, a 54 second PR for the sophomore, who finished at blistering speeds, taking the four lap course to task as he ran the third fastest final lap of any competitor to take the 14th spot. A second behind him would be
Edward Hernandez Castillo (Joshua, Texas / Joshua), completing a race that would see him set a new personal best just over a minute and a half faster than his previous.
Just hours later and over a thousand miles to the North, the Tigers would take on some of the highest ranked teams in the nation at the Running of the Cows Pre-nationals meet.
The women would run first, taking on a course chock full of hills, shoulder to shoulder with over 300 other runners. Under clear blue skies, they streamed over the course's inclines, led once again by
Gianna Keena (Lakeway, Texas / Lake Travis) who took it out hard and kept on rolling, managing to secure a top 30 finish and coming just shy of a PR on a course that had no intention of giving them up easily. Not that this would deter the next finishers for the Tigers,
Anne Snider (Waco, Texas / Live Oak Classical) and
Emerson Voldan (Arlington, Texas / Mansfield Summit), the Junior pair coming in just over a second apart and managing to set new best times by 8 seconds and 4 seconds respectively. The women would finish 19th to match their 19th place national ranking, but will no doubt be looking for more in the races to come.
Lining up under the noon sun, the Tiger men would race second, with their top 5 featuring two newly returned faces in
Eli Bliss (Ridge, Texas / Davenport) and
Nicolas Hutchinson (Houston, Texas / Westside) who finished third and fifth for the Tigers respectively. Both racers are recently recovered from injuries that saw them sidelined in the race prior, and found themselves within reach of their previous season's best marks. Leading them was
George Mikhael (Livermore, Calif. / Granada) in a time of 25:47, followed by
Layton Carlisle (Houston, Texas / Bridgeland), who managed a 15 improvement on his race from the UIW Invitational.
Sivin Naik (Austin, Texas / Westwood) also found success, finishing 12 seconds faster than the race prior. While still perhaps not the day they would have wanted, they come away with some crucial experience running in bigger races for a very young squad.
The Tigers will return as one team in two weeks for the DBU Old Glory Gallop, reunited for their last race before they begin championship season with the Conference in Tennessee.
