Rice University
C-USA Championships
MXC: Owls Place 3rd at C-USA Championships
11/2/2019 12:59:00 PM | Men's Cross Country
Landa, Topini, Castillo, Abikhaled earn all-conference honors
The third place finish for the Owls marked the 11th time in the last 15 years they have finished in the top three. Middle Tennessee won the league title with 31 points, followed by Charlotte at 48 points for second place.
The Owls had four runners earn all-conference honors and were led by junior Hociel Landa, who placed ninth overall in the 8k race with a time of 24:23 to earn second team accolades.
Junior Alex Topini (16th-24:50), freshman Ace Castillo (20th-25:03) and sophomore Andrew Abikhaled (21st-25:06) all earned Third Team honors for the Owls. Just missing all-conference recognition was senior Adolfo Carvalho (23rd-25:14) and junior Matthew Murray (26th-25:22).
In addition to the Owls top six runners, the rest of the team finished in this order: Connor Meaux (31st-25:32), Travis Dowd (40th-25:57), and Jason Bugg (45th-26:11).
"We had a great full team performance today against some of the best teams in the nation (MTSU is ranked #15 in the nation)," Rice head coach Jon Warren said. "UTEP and Marshall ran their best races of the season and our guys, all of the top seven, played an important part. Hociel's top-10 finish was an outstanding effort (earning 2nd team all conference honors) as were the efforts of the three 3rd team guys. Adolfo barely missed all conference as did Matt. Both Matt and Connor, our sixth and seventh displaced UTEP's fourth and fifth runners, causing a four point swing which ended up being the margin of victory over UTEP. Lots of teams ran well, it was a tough challenge racing some very good teams and Rice did great."
Next up for the Owls is the NCAA South Central Regional, which will be held Nov. 15 in Fayetteville, Ark. hosted by Arkansas. That race is scheduled to begin at 12 p.m.
Players Mentioned
