2022 Season Recap: Cross Country

The men’s and women’s cross-country teams for the Frogs both had up and down seasons in 2022 with good showings from each team at the NCAA South Central Regional in the postseason. Junior Gracie Morris had an excellent season individually as she advanced to the NCAA championship after finishing second in the South Central Regional. The men’s and women’s teams are both trending up as they can return almost every runner from the 2022 season for a potentially big 2023 campaign.

Season Overview:

Regular Season: The first meet of the season took place at Abilene Christian and was a very successful one for the Frogs. The women’s team placed first overall, securing the win behind a great time from Gracie Morris in her TCU cross-country debut placing third overall. Mariana Martinez also finished in the top 5 overall with a solid time while Jenna Buchanan was the third top 10 overall finisher for the Frogs coming in at 9th overall. The women’s team had all of their top 5 runners finish in the top 15 overall as Jasmin Muhammad-Graham finished 13th and Peyton McQuillan finished 14th overall. The men’s team had two finishers in the top twenty with Stone Burke finishing seventh and Finn Reilly finishing 19th. The rest of the men’s top 5 runners were within the top 40 as William Kirk, Drake Young, and Ryan Martin finished 27th, 28th, and 38th respectively. The men’s team finished 6th overall.

The next meet took place just down the road from campus in Arlington at UTA and both teams finished second in this meet. Gracie Morris followed up her debut well by winning the race and had 3 other teammates finish in the top 10 with her. Mariana Martinez, Erica Francesconi, and Jenna Buchanan finished 6th, 9th, and 10th respectively. Stone Burke led the way for the men’s team yet again with a 6th place finish while two other Frogs were in the top 15 with Finn Reilly at 10th and William Kirk at 11th.

The women’s team finished second yet again at the Texas A&M Invitational in College Station while the men’s came in 7th. Morris had yet another great meet finishing second overall with Francesconi and Martinez finishing 6th and 8th respectively to round out the top 10 finishers for the Frogs. Burke was the best finisher for the men’s team once again as he came in 28th overall while Kirk and Reilly were the two next-best runners for TCU at 39th and 45th respectively.

Next was the Arturo Barrios Invitational back in College Station where the men finished 28th out of 40 teams and the women, unfortunately, did not have enough finishers to qualify. Stone Burke was the top runner for the men’s team finishing 88th overall while Noah Winters was the second-best runner for TCU finishing 174th out of 360 finishers.

Big 12 Championship: Next up was the Big 12 Championship for the Frogs which took place in Lubbock. The men’s team finished 9th out of 9 teams and the women’s team finished 10th out of 10 teams. Gracie Morris ran a personal best 6k time good for 18th overall and the best individual finish at the Big 12 Championship for the Frogs since 2016. Stone Burke led the way for the men’s team finishing 48th out of 80 finishers.

NCAA Regional: The Frogs competed at the South Central Regional in College Station this year and the women finished 11th out of 27 teams and the men finished 17th out of 27 teams. Although neither team finished high enough to qualify for the NCAA championship meet, Gracie Morris finished second overall in the regional to secure a spot to run individually at the national championship meet in Stillwater, Oklahoma. Stone Burke was the top runner for the Frogs once again as he finished 53rd overall out of 167 finishers. Noah Winters had a very solid race as well as the second best runner for TCU, finishing 65th overall.

National Championship Meet: Gracie Morris was the lone representative for TCU at the national championship meet as she ran in the women’s 6k. Morris had a very solid race, finishing 142nd out of 253 total finishers. Morris led the way all year for the women’s team and is on pace to have a very big senior season in 2023.

After starting off the season very strong, both the men’s and women’s teams faltered a bit don the stretch in part due to injuries. 2023 has a chance to be a very good year for the Frogs however as both teams can return almost all of their runners and look to compete in the Big 12 and look to get closer to qualifying for the NCAA national championship meet.