Texas A&M-Commerce athletic teams always see many new faces leading up to each academic school year. For the cross country teams, this meant seeing 11 unfamiliar faces when practices started in the last few weeks.
The women’s team has six new runners, while the men’s team has five.
The new runners for the women are Kate Donovan, Emily Gibson, Amanda Martin, Karina Peake, Mindy Solorio & Leslea Traylor.
Donovan comes to A&M-C from Kemp High School, where she ran on the track team, and won the 1600-meter event during the UIL Regional II-3A, held during the spring, and placed in the event during the state meet.
Martin ran cross country at Scurry-Rosser High School, and was part of Dallas-Skyline High School’s championship team during her sophomore year of high school.
Gibson hails from Royse City, while Peak comes from Allen, and Solorio is from Elgin, and Traylor is from Marshall.
On the men’s team, the new runners are Brandon Womack, Logan Kelly, Kasie Carrell, Marcus Hawkins, and Tyler Tyndell.
Womack ran cross country at Lone Oak High School, and then played tennis at Eastfield College, where he was part of the national runner-up team.
Kelly was on the regional cross country team and state qualified in track while attending Anna High School.
Carrell hails from nearby Sulphur Springs, and should have an immediate impact, as he does quite a bit of running, and also participates in some half-marathon running.
Hawkins comes to A&M-C from Texarkana, while Tyndell hails from nearby Paris.
Head cross country coach Rich Lawrence, who was promoted from interim head coach during the summer, is excited about the new faces to both the men’s and women’s teams this fall and how it will help the team.
“The loss of Niki Williams, Kara & Andra Bickel was very big to us. We are young and inexperienced, but we have a group that we feel is going to help us, and I think we will do well.”
Andra Bickel graduated in the spring, but is still providing a tremendous amount of support, as an assistant coach with the cross country team.
“Having Andra as an assistant coach has already helped us tremendously. She knows what we have done, has the experience of running at most of the places, and she has helped us with a lot.”
Also an assistant coach with the cross country team is Jason Wicke. He is ranked third in Canada’s cross country master’s division, and one of the top-15 international tri-athletes, so he is very familiar in the cardio and bio-mechanics.
“Having those two (Bickel and Wicke) should be a big help to the team,” said Lawrence.
The schedule for cross country begins this upcoming Saturday, when the teams travel to Edmond, Okla. to participate in the UCO Land Run.
Following the Land Run, the teams will be back in action on Sept. 22, when they run in College Station, at the Texas A&M Invitational.
Following the Invitational, they will travel to Memphis, Tenn. to run in the Memphis Twilight Classic on Oct. 6.
The teams will conclude their regular schedule of meets, when they host the Lone Star Conference cross country championship meet on Oct. 20.
The LSC Meet will be at the end of Homecoming Week, and Lawrence hopes that the timing will help to bring out more people.
“It’s (the meet) the same time as Homecoming, the meet is in the morning, and the football game is later that day, so we hope it will bring a lot of people.”