Texas women’s cross country finishes regular season at Wisconsin Pre-Nationals – The Daily Texan

To cap off the regular season, the Texas women’s cross country competed at the Pre-Nationals on October 19 in Madison, Wisconsin. Texas placed 18th overall in the 6K race, scoring a total of 499 points, with seven Longhorns contributing to the score.

Finishing 18th in the race was not familiar territory for Texas, as the team placed sixth overall in the previous 6K race at the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational in Chicago. Previously, Texas reclaimed first place in the 5K race at both the Stormy Seas Opener and the Chile Pepper Festival.

Throughout the season, several Longhorns recorded personal bests during races. This showed that not only were the Texas runners improving and making great strides overall, but also that the team needed to perform at their best to remain among the top teams.

Despite finishing outside the top ten, the Longhorns remain first in the South Central Region. In Wisconsin, the team competed head-to-head against Arkansas and Tulane and placed better than both, securing its first-place finish.

Graduate student Olivia Howell placed 32nd in the race and first for Texas with a time of 20:04.0. This was Howell’s third top finish as the Longhorns’ leader this season and was just two seconds shy of her personal best. Heading to the Southeastern Conference and NCAA Championships, Howell hopes to remain consistent in her rankings for the rest of her college career.

Coming in second for Texas was junior Elizabeth Pickett, the only Longhorn scorer to set a personal best. She placed 56th in the race, running a time of 20:17.1, a 19-second improvement over her time of 20:36.87. Pickett has shown dominance in every meet this season and at the Pre-Nationals she marked her fourth consecutive personal best.

Senior Eva Jess finished third for the Longhorns, placing 110th overall with a time of 20:41.0. Jess has been instrumental in shaping the Texas team this year after placing first at the Sean Earl Lakefront Invitational for UT and setting three personal bests this season.

Next up was graduate Elizabeth Stockman, who placed 152nd with a time of 21:00.5. Freshman Sydni Wilkins finished right behind her in 155th place with a pace of 21:01.7.

Texas’ final two scorers were graduate student Kyra Pretre with a time of 21:28.5 and junior Brighton Mooney with a time of 21:49.0. They finished 202nd and 223rd overall in the 6km race.

With the regular season now over, Texas looks forward to competing in the SEC Championships on November 1st in College Station.

Since the Longhorns were the No. 3 seed in the NCAA Finals last year, they want to set higher expectations as a team competing in a new conference.