Sept. 15, 2007
DENTON, Texas - The Baylor men's cross country team placed four runners in the top eight to claim the team title at the 30th annual North Texas Invitational on Saturday morning.
"I thought that our guys ran a really good race today," said assistant coach Jon Capron. "Placing four guys in the top 10 is really good and hopefully this will help us to build some confidence."
Baylor scored 33 points to take first place overall. North Texas was second with 47 points. Festus Kigen of TCU took individual medalist honors in the 8K race.
"Robbie ran really well, and this was his first 8K race ever," said Capron. "Our guys went out cautious; the two guys that finished ahead of us went out quickly. Hopefully we will be able to track those guys down by the time we run at regionals."
Robbie Knorr (Livermore, Calif.) was the top finisher for the Bears, placing third overall with a time of 25:29.20. Jacob Jones (Willis, Texas) finished fourth in 25:37.07.
"Robbie really moved up a lot during the second half of the race," said Capron. "Jacob led the pack over the first four kilometers, which is what you want from your experienced runners. He did exactly what we want an upperclassman to do."
Ben Haby (Corpus Christi, Texas) and Jordan Hiller (Yoakum, Texas) took seventh and eight with times of 25:51.43 and 26:18.37, respectively. Jeff Sadler (Waco, Texas) completed the men's scorers with an 11th-place finish in 26:35.55.
Michael Williams (Colorado Springs, Colo.) finished 12th overall, while Joseph Hawkins (Germantown, Tenn.) took 21st. Hunter Garner (Keller, Texas) finished 23rd to round out the Baylor squad.
In the women's race, Katie Shaw (Cleburne, Texas) finished first overall, winning her first career title with a time of 18:44.49 in the 5K race. Lauren Simpson (Canyon, Texas) ran unattached to finish in seventh place. Kathryn Benvegnu (Kingwood, Texas) finished in 11th to complete the Baylor team of runners.
Baylor returns to action next weekend as the women's team travels to South Bend, Ind. to compete in the Notre Dame Invitational, while the men's team travels to Palo Alto, Calif. to compete in the Stanford Invitational.
