For Immediate Release: Friday, 5 September 2003
Contact: Mike Bond, UTPA Assistant Sports Information Director, (956) 381-2240

UTPA TURNS IN STRONG PERFORMANCE IN OPENER

EDINBURG, TX- The University of Texas Pan American's cross country team turned in a strong performance in their first meet of the season, the UTPA Cross Country Relays at the Ebony Golf Course in Edinburg Friday evening.

The Broncs' team of Aaron Castro (So./McAllen, TX/McAllen Memorial HS) and Westly Keating (Jr./Pharr, TX/ PSJA North HS) took first place among the 12 men's teams entered, with a time of 49:35. Their time was 17 seconds better than the second place finishers, Martin Corona and Luis Escamilla of Texas A&M-Kingsville. Texas A&M Corpus Christian was also represented in the non-scored event, in which each runner ran five laps totaling 8000 meters.

The Lady Broncs were led by a pair of freshmen, Loraine Garcia (Laredo, TX/Nixon HS) and Lizet Garcia (McAllen, TX/McAllen HS), who completed the course in 39:09. Cici Ramirez and Nikki Spatz of Texas A&M-Kingsville finished first in 37:52. Each runner ran five laps totaling 5000 meters.

"I was pretty pleased with the way we did," said UTPA Head Coach Ricky Vaughn. "I think the athletes liked it, although it was much harder physically than a regular cross country race. I was really pleased with some of our freshmen. We have a good nucleus of runners and we will show a lot of improvement this year."

Vaughn was pleased with several of the individual efforts. "We had several strong performances," Vaughn said. " For the women, Lorraine Garcia, Lizet Garcia, Karla Hernandez (FR./Edinburg, TX/Edinburg HS) and Maria Vargas (FR./San Juan, TX/PSJA Memorial HS) ran very well. On the men's side, Westly ran a great race and Aaron really ran well. David Trevino (FR./Brownsville, TX/Hanna HS) and Jason Tejada (FR./Brownsville, TX/Hanna HS) also had very good opening meets."

Texas Pan American will return to action next Saturday, September 13th, when they travel to Albuquerque, New Mexico to compete in the New Mexico Invitational.

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