Texas A&M cross country coach Dan Waters was arguably the happiest person in the Brazos Valley as heavy rains began pounding the area early in the week.
It meant the chances were good that the rains would be gone by Friday, just in time for the Texas A&M Invitational at the Penberthy Intramural Fields.
With 6 inches of standing water throughout the course, the Invitational was completely washed out last season. In 2008, the event had to be moved back a week because of Hurricane Ike.
"The soccer coaches were making jokes about how they wait to see my schedule, then they schedule an away game [the weekend of the Invitational] because they knew there would be rain," Waters said. "The preparations are a little bit behind schedule, but the weather forecast looks good for Friday."
Waters believed the cancellation of last year's event not only surrendered the Aggies' one opportunity of running in front of friends and family but also hampered A&M's short cross country season.
"We went through most of last season relatively blind on what our fitness was because of this meet not being held," Waters said. "One thing that is really nice about running at home is the course is the same year-in and year-out, and you really get an idea of how fit you are. Running on a course we are very familiar with is a really great test for us to know if we're ahead of schedule or if we need to work a little bit harder because we are behind schedule."
After the cancellation, A&M's next two meets were on courses the Aggies had never competed on, and Waters says he was unable to gauge where his team stood until the Big 12 meet.
"Until the midportion of our season last year, we really didn't have a great understanding of how fit we were until we went to the conference championship," Waters said. "Then we got better at regionals, but it wasn't good enough."
Waters got his first look at his men's and women's teams last week when A&M ran at New Mexico. Three A&M runners finished in the top 10 of their divisions. MacLean O'Donnell finished fifth in the men's race, while Katherine Devlin and Natosha Rogers were sixth and eighth, respectively, on the women's side.
Devlin, a sophomore, is just as elated as Waters that the Aggies should finally get to return to their home course for a regular season event.
"There is a certain comfort I find with running with your teammates," Devlin said. "You run with these people all day every day, so to have them at an important thing like a home meet plays a big role. I'm happy it will be here and that my family and friends and teammates and even a lot of the track kids can see what we do in the fall."
Of those returning, Devlin had the most success last season, just missing the national meet by two places. She also fell just 4 seconds shy of qualifying for the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in the 10,000 meters.
Sophomore Amanda Jenkins and senior Kasey McNorton, who ran in last year's regional, also will be competing for A&M's top squad.
On the men's side, Waters' top three runners from 2009 graduated. He is counting on some of the juniors to pick up the slack and said he was especially impressed by sophomore O'Donnell.
A&M's men finished fourth at the NCAA South Central Regional last season. Kevin Burnett, James Hodges and Jimmy Welin participated in the meet and will run for the first team Friday.
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NOTES -- The only other time the A&M Invitational has been run on Friday night rather than Saturday morning was in 2004 when the temperature at race time was 107 degrees. ... Nearly 1,700 high school runners will be split up into nine division Friday. ... Waters said the women's race should be a real test of where A&M stands in the region with Baylor, Rice and SMU usually being three of the top six or seven teams.
Texas A&M Cross Country
What: Texas A&M Invitational
When: 5:30 p.m., Friday. A&M women run at 6:20 p.m.; men at 7:35 p.m.
Where: Penberthy Intramural Fields
Who: Men, 13 teams, including Baylor, Texas, Tec de Monterrey. Women, 14 teams, including Baylor, Rice, SMU.
A&M runners: Men - Kevin Burnett, MacLean O'Donnell, James Hodges, Will Barry, Jimmy Welin, Stephen Curry, Chad Brown
Women - Katherine Devlin, Natosha Rogers, Itzel Cetina, Amanda Jenkins, Gabby Salazar, Sophie Blake, Kasey McNorton
Note: There will be seven high school races.
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