Goule and Campbell continue to lead SPC cross country
CANYON, Texas - The South Plains College Texan and Lady Texan cross country teams shared a successful evening Friday at the West Texas A&M Cross Country Invitational as the SPC women dominated the event and the Texans missed the team championship after scoring went to a tie breaker.
Click 'Read More' to view the rest of the story and a short video interview with Frank Barker.
The Lady Texans were once again led by freshman Natoya Goule who won the individual championship with a time of 18 minutes, 59 seconds on the 5,000 meter course. Sophomore Lisa Forsberg was not far behind Goule when she crossed the line in second place overall with a time of 19:36.00.
Kadian Dunkley finished fifth overall with a time of 20:08.00 and she was followed in sixth place by Kirsten Taylor in 20:18.00. Levelland native Leann Cardona was the final scoring runner to cross the line as she finished 14th place overall with a time of 21:13.00. Tiffany Matthews also competed, finishing 16thoverall with a time of 21:20.00.
Assistant coach Frank Barker was pleased with the total team effort, but especially with the finish of Cardona.
"Leann Cardona had a breakthrough race for us. She had been running sixth for us and ran number five today," Barker said.
For the third week in a row Kemoy Campbell led the Texans as he won his second race in three attempts, finishing the 8,000 meter course in a time of 25:20.00 and defeating his nearest competitor by 33-seconds. Freshman David Westbury followed Campbell with a third place finish as he crossed the line in a time of 26:29.00.
Running together most of the race, Roblet Muhudin and David Mogi finished fifth and sixth overall, respectively, turning in times of 26:35.00 and 26:46.00. The final scoring runner for the Texans was Isacc Placencia. Placencia was the 17th competitor to cross the line and finished with a time of 27:55.00.
Joey Villarreal (18th), Hugo Aguinaga (19th), and Jonathan Lira (22nd) also competed for the Texans.
The Texans finished tied with Eastern New Mexico for the team title with 32 points, but lost as the tie breaker went to ENMU whose sixth finisher was better than SPC's.
Entering the meet, head coach Chris Beene hoped his men's team could gain some confidence back after a disappointing performance last week. Assistant Coach Frank Barkerthinks they did just that.
"David Westbury had a breakthrough race. He stepped up to where Coach Beene and I thought he would be," Barker said. "I was also really tickled with Roblet. He had an outstanding race. We are rolling. We are going to get there."
The Texans and Lady Texans will compete again on Saturday, October 9th when they host the Subway Cross Country Invitational. Events begin at 8:30 a.m. with junior high and then high school races. The Lady Texans will toe the line at 11 a.m., and the meet will conclude after the Texans race at 11:30 a.m.