Fuentes finishes second and Hilltoppers place fifth at Texas State Invitational
SAN MARCOS, Texas - St. Edward's senior David Fuentes finished second just four seconds off of the lead to push the Hilltopper men's cross country team to a fifth place finish Saturday morning at the 2008 Texas State Invitational.
Fuentes, who finished third in the same race last season, ended just four seconds behind Texas freshman Rory Tunningley (25:46). Fuentes held off three other Texas runners who finished just behind him.
"It is a big accomplishment for David to finish second," St. Edward's head coach Tony Riehl said. "The only runner to beat him was from a Division I school and a former Texas state champion."
St. Edward's (146) ended the day in fifth place. Texas (20) took home the title, with UT-San Antonio (49) finished second and Angelo State (97) ended the day in third place. Southwestern (128) finished just ahead of the Hilltoppers in fourth place. The Hilltoppers defeated College of Southwest (147) finished sixth, while Division I Texas State (211) finished 65 points behind St. Edward's in eighth place. Schreiner (222) and UT-Permian Basin (237) finished eighth and ninth respectively.
"Overall we have shown improvement and that is always our goal," Riehl said. "These young mean are really working hard and good things are starting to happen."
Also competing for St. Edward's were sophomore Alex Gay (28:17) who finished 22nd, junior Julio Vazquez (29:05) who ended 27th, senior Ben Palmer (31:46) who finished 47th, freshman Steve Danko (31:55) who finished 48th, while junior Dan O'Dwyer (33:34) ended 52nd and junior Jeff Thomas (36:00) ended 56th.
St. Edward's will be back in action Sept. 13th when they travel to take part in the Texas A&M Invitational. The race will begin 7:45 a.m. in College Station, Texas.