THE STARTING LINE
• New Mexico State's Men and Women Cross Country Teams are off to compete at the Texas Tech Open in Lubbock, Texas on Saturday, September 17^th.
• The meet will take place at Lubbock Christian University. Starting at 8:15 a.m. CT the men will compete in an eight-kilometer race, followed by the women's six-kilometer race at 8:45 a.m. CT.

THE FIELD
• This meet will be a great opportunity to see where the Aggies rank up against big Texas schools.
• In addition to the Aggies, 17 other teams along with unattached runners will compete in the Texas Tech Open. Teams that will be accompanying the Aggies in Lubbock are University of New Mexico, Texas Tech, Lubbock Christian, West Texas A&M, UTEP, UT-Permian Basin, Western Texas College, Eastern New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Plains, Western New Mexico, Baylor, Southwest New Mexico, and Ranger.

ABOUT THE AGGIES | MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
• The Aggies men's team recently placed third in the Lori Fitzgerald Open. The Aggies ran alongside UTEP and El Paso Community College in their first and only home meet of the season.
• Anekin Hetman lead the Aggies to a third place finish by placing fourth with a time of 15 minutes and 10.03 seconds. Hetman was followed by Collins Yego who placed in the top 15 with a time of 15:59.12.
• Looking to impress in their inaugural seasons are Nick Allred, Javen Chavez, Diego Logan-Beshad, Laith Quteifan and Collins Yego.
• In his collegiate debut, freshman Nick Allred crossed the finish line in 17th place with a time of 16:25.30.

ABOUT THE AGGIES | WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY
• The women's team is coming off a first place victory from New Mexico State's home meet, the Lori Fitzgerald Memorial Open. The Aggie women ran alongside UTEP and El Paso Community College to start off the season.
•Coming in strong, Maggie Gibbs (17:59.69) led her team to victory with a third place finish. Followed by Emily Stutesman (18:07.76) who secured a fourth place finish behind Gibbs.
•All seven of the Aggie women who competed on September 3rd impressively placed in the top ten.
• This weekend we hope to see new freshman recruits Samantha Ramirez and Jordan Torres. The two runners come to us from the Sun City of El Paso, Texas. Torres by way of Franklin HS and Ramirez from San Elizario HS.
•Ramirez set a personal record at the Texas UIL 4A State Championships last year after posting a 12:45.0 in the 3.2K. Also recorded a few first place finishes in the UIL 4A District championship (Oct. 25) and the Tortillo/San Elizario Invitational (Aug. 1).
• Torres is coming of a year where she had five separate top-five finishes in the 5k while running at San Elizario HS. She set a personal record at the El Paso ISD Invitational on Sep. 11 after crossing the line with a 19.07.1 finish.

COMING UP NEXT
Following the Texas Tech Open, the Aggies will have just about two weeks before heading to the heat of Arizona. New Mexico State runners will be headed to Tucson, Arizona for the Dave Murray Invitational on Sep. 30. After that, they participate in one more meet on Oct. 15., before headed to the 2022 WAC Championships in Nacogdoches, Texas on Oct. 29.