By Ashlin Penn
Staff Writer
On Oct. 23 the Cameron Aggies hosted the Lone Star Conference (LSC) Cross Country Championship at the Big Green Soccer Complex. The races consisted of a men’s 8k and a women’s 6k.
There were 15 men’s teams and 16 women’s teams who competed last Saturday morning. The results were a team win for West Texas A&M men and a team win for Dallas Baptist University women.
Each team has nine runners, but only the top five times are recorded towards a team’s score. The score is equal to each runner’s placement. For example, the runner in first place gets a score of one, the runner in second place gets a score of two, and so on. The first place men’s team had a score of 42 and the first place women’s team had a score of 35.
Cameron’s men placed 10th and the women placed ninth with scores of 192 and 272 respectively. Out of 127, our first female runner, Daesha Brathwaite, placed 31st with a time of 23:55.03. Out of 119, our first male runner, Saulo Yoel, placed 11th with a time of 26:17.72.
I had an opportunity to speak with Yoel, who is a Senior studying Sports and Exercise Science about his achievement and his collegiate running career.
“Coming to Cameron University was the best decision I have ever made,” he said. “Since I came here the program has really helped me improve my times.”
He mentioned how he had a lot of confidence heading into the race since he trained frequently on that same track. He also achieved his fastest 8k time on that track.
Saulo was the first finisher on Cameron’s team. I asked him how his teammates reacted to his achievement.
“My team is always there for me,” he said. “I wouldn’t be All-conference without them pushing me to work hard in practice.”
Saulo was injured before coming to Cameron, but he spoke highly of his coaches, teammates, and the Graduate Assistant (GA) Roger Malonda.
“It definitely felt special to host the Lone Star Conference championships,” Malonda said. “In the days leading up to it, it was about trusting everything we had done in practice leading up to it, and feeling confident and hopeful we could execute to the best of our abilities.”
Another team finisher was Belle Vignes who finished the 6k second for Cameron and top 50 overall with a time of 24:47.40.
“This season started out pretty rocky,” Vignes said. “But, I did not give up. Each week I continued to work hard and improve.”
The team will continue to train for their next big race of the season. Cameron will compete in the NCAA Division II South Central Regional race. This competition will occur on Nov. 9 in Lubbock, Texas.
The team has improved a lot over this past season and has high hopes for Regionals. Hopefully, there will be Personal Records from some of the runners.