Juana Garcia/The Cougar
UH men’s and women’s cross country teams earned a pair of fifth-place finishes led by a sixth-place performance from senior Devin Vallejo-Bannister and a 13th place finish from senior Maddy Castleberry at the Aggie Opener from the Dale Watts Cross Country Course.
The UH cross country men’s team opened up its season scoring 115 points, to earn fifth.
Vallejo-Bannister set the pace for Houston as he finished sixth of out 67 competitors, earning a time of 15:52.0 in the 5K.
Junior Alan Elbanna was the second runner to cross the finish line for the men’s team with a 23rd- place finish at 16:32.2. Junior Brandon Seagreaves came within striking distance of Elbanna placing 30th with a time of 16:52.7.
Senior Tyler Keranen finished 45th with a time of 17:28.8 followed by tight finishes by freshmen Carlos Castillo who took 51st (17:42.0) and Thomas Crider who took the 54th (17:48.9).
To conclude the men’s performance, sophomore Tre Grant and senior Christian Gilmore finished 57th (18:03.9) and 61st (19:24.5).
The women’s cross country team matched the men’s fifth-place finish scoring 126 points.
Castleberry led the women’s team, finishing 13th out of 64 runners in the 4.1K with a time of 14:59.7.
The women’s team earned two more top 30 finishes with senior Regan Lobodzinski and sophomore Hannah Gault earning the 27th and 29th spots with respective times of 15:25.9 and 15:33.2.
Following the trio, freshman Victoria Ruiz placed 32nd with a time of 15:40.7. Fellow freshmen Daniela Castillo and Erin Rivera finished with times of 15:52.3 and 15:54.1 to earn 39th and 41st respectively.
To cap off the women’s performance, Sondos Moursy and Eleni Kaiser registered back-to-back finishes behind Rivera placing 42nd and 43rd respectively. Moursy’s time stopped at 16:12.4 while Kaiser’s finished at 16:24.8.
