Top finishes from sophomore Brian Barraza (above), senior Anthony Coleman, junior James Broussard and freshman Ebony White helped the men’s and women’s teams to third and fourth place finishes, respectively. | Courtesy of UH Athletics
The Houston Cross Country team competed in the 39th annual Rice Invitational at Rice University last Friday, where both the men’s and women’s teams earned top five finishes.
In last season’s Rice Invitational, the men finished seventh in team standings, while the women placed ninth.
In this year’s invitational, sophomore Brian Barraza had the top time for the men and finished the invitational in third place with a time of 16:50. Barraza continued his success when he finished the 6K in 16:57 to end the day as the top overall finisher.
Houston also got top-15 finishes from senior Anthony Coleman (12th; 17:27) and junior James Broussard (13th; 17:31) to help lead them to third overall in the team standings, jumping up 4 spots from last year.
The women would also move up 4 spots from their ranking last year. Freshman Ebony White turned in a top-five finish for the women with her time of 13:43 in the 4K race, which helped lead Houston to a fifth place finish.
The Cougars are set to travel to Corpus Christi for the annual Islander Splash hosted by Texas A&M Corpus Christi on Sept. 26. Houston did well in the tournament last year, with the men finishing second and the women fifth, setting goals improve on their history.
