Cortez & McCutchen in action at UIW Invitational
FRISCO, Texas – After both posting first-place individual finishes at Saturday’s UIW Invitational, Cardinal sophomore Garret Cortez and freshman Morgan McCutchen of A&M-Corpus Christi were named as Southland Conference Cross Country Athletes of the Week, presented by UniversalCoin.com, the league announced Tuesday.
Men’s Cross Country Athlete of the Week – Garret Cortez, UIW
Sophomore Garett Cortez continued his stellar season with a first-place finish in the 8K at the 11
th Annual UIW Invitational on Saturday out of 56 male Division I runners. Cortez’ winning time of 24:05.9 helped the Cardinal men’s team to a third-place finish at the meet in Live Oak, Texas. His finishing time was 12.8 seconds ahead of the next-fastest Southland competitor. Cortez has now topped the finishing order for the Cardinals in all four meets this season and will race next at the Southland Conference Championship on October 28 in Nacogdoches.
Honorable Mention: Marek Spriesterbach, A&M-Corpus Christi; Clayton O’Callaghan, New Orleans; Josh Torres, Stephen F. Austin
Women’s Cross Country Athlete of the Week – Morgan McCutchen, A&M-Corpus Christi
The Islanders also made their way north to UIW on Saturday, where freshman Morgan McCutchen paced a fast A&M-Corpus Christi order to a first-place team finish. McCutchen finished first out of 41 Division I females and five teams with a 6K finishing time of 22:04.2. This was her first individual win of the season. The UIW Invite also concluded regular season racing for A&M-Corpus Christi before the conference championship in just under three weeks.
Honorable Mention: Ana Moreno, Sam Houston State; Taylor Anderson, Stephen F. Austin
Each school’s sports information director nominates and votes for the players of the week, though is not permitted to vote for his or her own player. To receive honorable mention, a player must receive votes from 25 percent of the Southland sports information directors
.