FAYETTEVILLE, AR - The Concordia Texas men's cross country team produced astounding times at the Chile Pepper Cross Country Festival hosted by the University of Arkansas. In what served as their first 8k meet of the season, sophomores Kamron Loera (27:06.8) and Thomas Hughes (28:08.2) reached new personal bests at Agri Park on Friday. 

Loera finished in 66th out of 368 competitors to finish in the top 19 percent of the field. HIs blistering time serves as the fourth fastest 8k run in school history. Hughes exhibited dramatic improvement as his new personal record is over three minutes faster than his time in the Chile Pepper Festival last year and 44 seconds faster than his previous record.

Overall, four Tornados in total ran under 29:35 with Samuel Valdez finishing at 29:16.9 and Lawson Meiers clocking in at 29:34.4 in their first collegiate 8k. Rounding out the field for CTX were junior Jacob Ismir (31:07.3) and freshman Aaron Ramos (31:31.0). Overall, CTX placed 27th out of 38th in a loaded field.

The men's and women's cross country team will now take a week off from competition before heading to Marshall, Texas to race in the ETBU Tiger Invitational on Oct. 14. The women will start at 5:00 p.m. with the men scheduled for 5:45 p.m.


CTX 8K FINISHERS

PLACE	NAME	TIME
66)	Kamron Loera	27:06.8 (PR)
117)	Thomas Hughes	28:08.2 (PR)
198)	Samuel Valdez	29:16.9
211)	Lawson Meiers	29:34.4
264)	Jacob Ismir	31:07.3
269)	Aaron Ramos	31:31.0

 

TEAM SCORES

Pl		Team	Pts
1		Drury	81
2		Rogers State	127
3		Oklahoma Baptist	133
4		UT-Dallas	227
5		Southern Arkansas	281
6		Newman	285
7		LeTourneau	303
8		John Brown	307
9		Wayland Baptist	312
10		UA-Fort Smith	326
11		Oral Roberts	344
12		Arkansas-Pine Bluff	365
12*		Northwest Arkansas CC	365
12*		Texas State	365
15		Christian Brothers	395
16		TAMU-Texarkana	444
17		McPherson	445
18		Cameron	446
19		College of the Ozarks	496
20		Baker	511
21		Northwestern Oklahoma	514
22		Hutchinson CC	540
23		Ranger	583
24		Southwestern Assemblies of God	613
25		Garden City CC	617
26		Northwestern State	685
27		Concordia (TX)	713
28		Neosho County CC	731
29		Crowder	734
30		East Texas Baptist	817
31		Pratt CC	829
31*		SFCC	829
33		Carl Albert State	979
34		UA-Rich Mountain	987
35		Coffeyville	1068
36		Ozark Christian	1073
37		Highland CC	1093
38		Philander Smith	1100

To keep up to date with everything surrounding the CTX cross country program, follow us on social media (@ctxathletics) and visit athletics.concordia.edu.