The Arizona Wildcats’ cross country team took on a course this Friday at the Notre Dame Joe Piane Invitational that they’ve never raced on before. Though the course was foreign to the Wildcats, three of the Arizona girls were able to place in the top 100; however, Villarreal was the only Arizona male to place in the top 100.

The Arizona women’s racing performance really shined at the invitational. They were able to take 16th out of the 24 speedy teams competing and Jennie Baragar-Petrash clocked a time of 16:50.61 for 26th place, Keelah Barger was at 17:24.53 for 78th place and Kayla Young came in 86th place at 17:27.25.

To give some perspective on how stacked this race was with competition, Barger and Young were less than three seconds apart and there were still eight runners between them. In fact, the difference between 26th place and 1st place was less than a minute, with the first racer coming in at 16:01.61. The Arizona women’s team performed very well amongst the masses.

As for the men’s cross country team, Villarreal opened up his season here at the Joe Piane Invitational, clocking in a time of 24:14.11 in the five mile. This put him at 49th place, which is a very strong spot to be for the start of his season.

This won’t be the last time that the Wildcats make a mark in Indiana. In two weeks, the Wildcats will be traveling to Terre Haute, Ind. for the Pre-NCAA Cross Country Invitational, so hopefully the foreign Indiana territory will feel a little more comfortable for the next race — or at least the flight will.

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