RC women sprint to win at Graham-RC Invite
The new winding course for the 2020 William Graham Ranger College Invitational wasn't a distraction for RC sophomore Jessica Thomas-Billot. In fact, it felt just like running near her home in France.
And the end result was pure gold.
Thomas-Billot led a dominating performance by the ninth-ranked Ranger College women on Friday afternoon. The RC women placed all seven runners in the top 10 and breezed to an easy team victory. Ranger tallied just 16 points in the meet, 40 fewer than runner-up Cameron University.
"I thought the whole team did a great job," said Thomas-Billot, who qualified for the national cross-country meet in 2018. "The course was nice. It was like running at home (in France) because it was not so flat and had a lot of turns."
Thomas-Billot and teammate Estela Dorantes got off to a quick start. The two raced their way to the front of the back after the first 100 meters of the pack and consistently padded their lead. Thomas-Billot cruised over the course, finishing almost 45 seconds ahead of Dorantes. Thomas-Billot's time was 19 minutes, 53.2 seconds. Dorantes, despite twisting an ankle in the last half-mile of the race, came in at 20:40.9.
"I thought it (her race) went well," said Dorantes, who was part of five freshmen to run their way into the top 10. "We were able to do what we wanted."
Sophomore Natali Mireles and freshman Alexa Reyes added to Ranger's domination of the standings. Mireles finished third in the medalist standings by legging out a time of 20:42.2. Reyes, who was the fifth runner to cross the finish line, claimed fourth in the point standings by turning in a time of 20:56.1. Janeth Chacon was fourth overall but did not count toward the team standings due to not competing as part of a team.
Aylin Huerta, Kaylyn De La Rosa and Melohdee Marroquin added to RC's impressive effort. Huerta was eighth overall at 21-11.3, while De La Rosa and Marroquin were ninth and 10th, respectively, at 21:29.0 and 21:50.3.
Neveah Sarabia and Fae Gonzalez almost added to the Lady Rangers' top 10 totals. Sarabia checked in at 12th at 22:01.4, while Gonzalez was 13th at 22:09.4.
Alauna Stackhouse nailed down an 18th-place finish with a stellar performance. She turned in a time of 23:08.0.
Ana De La Cruz was 37th at 25:57.6.
