Blinn Women's Cross Country Texas A&M 2025

Men's Cross Country 9/13/2025 3:09:00 PM

Buccaneer men, women show vast improvement at Texas A&M Invitational

Both Blinn teams shaved considerable time off their team averages from the 2024 A&M Invite

Men's Cross Country 9/13/2025 3:09:00 PM

Buccaneer men, women show vast improvement at Texas A&M Invitational

Both Blinn teams shaved considerable time off their team averages from the 2024 A&M Invite

In their second turn at the Texas A&M Invitational, the Blinn College men's and women's cross country teams showed how much difference one year makes.

The Buccaneers – in their second year of competition – ran among numerous NCAA programs in Saturday's men's and women's races at the Dale Watts '71 Cross Country Course in College Station, Texas, and made vast improvements in their overall team times from 2024.

"It's easy to race well when you are the best team in a competition, but it's a much more difficult task when you are competing against older and more developed athletes and teams," Blinn's men's and women's head coach Jesse Parker said. "The caliber of competition at this meet is higher than anything we will see this year outside of the national championships, and I was very pleased with not just how we competed today, but how the athletes approached this meet over the past two weeks."

Matthew Binkley 2025

Pictured: Blinn's Matthew Binkley, left, during the Texas A&M Invitational on Sept. 13, 2025, in College Station, Texas

At the same meet last season, the Buccaneer men averaged a time of 27 minutes, 21 seconds, while the women posted a team average of 22:06. This time around, the Blinn men shaved their average to 25:57 while the women improved to 20:31.

Among Saturday's competing teams were NCAA Division I programs Texas A&M University, Texas Christian University, the University of Houston, the University of North Texas, the University of Texas-Arlington, Sam Houston State University, Prairie View A&M University, and the University of California San Diego.

"A year ago, I think our kids felt like they were in over their heads and just focused on staying afloat," Parker explained, "but this year, the mentality of our approach was that we belonged at this meet. I thought the athletes approached the day with the professionalism that we need if we expect to perform well in these environments."

The Buccaneer men placed 12th out of 13 teams that finished the race, and bested Prairie View in the standings.

Of 146 individual runners, freshman Matthew Binkley placed 46th for Blinn (41st for team scoring) with a time of 25:17. Freshman Gage Horejsi followed with a time of 25:47 for 68th place (56th team); freshman Ryan Fernandez was 81st (67th team) in 26:05.6; sophomore Eric Lagat took 90th (74th team) in 26:15.3; and sophomore Christian Gonzalez rounded out the Bucs' top five with a time of 26.20, good for 93rd (76th team).

Pictured: The Blinn women's cross country team takes off from the starting line during the Texas A&M Invitational

The Blinn women placed 13th in the 14-team race and also finished ahead of Prairie View.

The Bucs' top runner was freshman Kaitlin Wilson, who crossed the finish line in 20:11.4 and finished 105th overall (75th team) among 144 runners. Freshman Rosario Botello placed 108th (77th team) in 20:21.8; sophomore Clare White was 115th (80th) team at 20:31.4; sophomore Sophie Pyle took 124th (86th team) in 20:45.8; and sophomore Juliana Jeansonne was 125th (87th team) in 20:49.4.

Also of note for the Blinn women was their first-to-fifth split of 38 seconds, which separated Wilson and Jeansonne. At 37 seconds, only Texas A&M had a better split.

Up next for the Buccaneer men and women is The Hill Cross Country Classic hosted by Hill College on Friday, September 26, in Hillsboro, Texas.

Blinn has competed in intercollegiate athletics since 1903 and captured 53 national championships since 1987.

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