University of Houston Athletics
Barraza To Compete At NCAA Championships
11/21/2014 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
HOUSTON-Sophomore distance runner Brian Barraza will compete as an individual in a 10K race at the 2014 NCAA Cross Country Championships at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Ind., on Saturday at noon.
"It feels pretty good," Barraza said. "It feels like I'm joining the ranks of some of the best in the history of this university. It's kind of like being in a more elite group. It's exciting."
Barraza qualified for the NCAA Championships after his fourth place finish at the NCAA South Central Regional in Fayetteville, Ark., last Friday. The El Paso native ran a 29:41.5 at Agri Park and missed breaking Al Lawrence's Houston school record in the 10K by just 5.1 seconds.
"It was an amazing feeling," Barraza said. "Partially because I made it to Nationals, and partially because I beat my coach's (Head Coach Steve Magness) PR on that course, and that was his overall PR. That means I'm kind of faster than him and that's exciting. I've been putting in so much work, that I knew if everything came together the way it should have, then I would be making it. Once the gun sounded, everything started falling into place, and I felt fantastic. By the time we hit the fourth mile I had a certainty that it was going to work out."
Barraza became the first Cougar since Wesley Ruttoh in 2011 to qualify for the NCAA Nationals and just the fifth cross country athlete to qualify since 1961. The former Franklin High school star will return to the same course where he placed 47th (25:02.0) in the Pre-Nationals 8K race on Oct. 18.
For Barraza, the NCAA Championships will be the culmination of what has already been an incredible 2014. The year began with Barraza's relay team winning the 2014 American Athletic Conference Indoor Championship in the Men's DMR and being named to each of the indoor and outdoor All-American Athletic Conference teams for Track and Field. From there, Barraza won silver at the USA Championships and the U.S. Junior Championships to qualify for the opportunity to run for his country, and compete for Team USA at the Junior Worlds.
"It's really quite an experience to go and compete for Team USA, but it's also quite an experience to go and compete at the NCAA meet," Barraza said. "I think I'm going to take away more from the NCAA meet, because in running for USA it was only juniors. This is everybody. There are some guys right now that are running at an almost pro level. Being on the same competition field as them, I think I'll be able to take more from that."
MEET INFORMATION
The 2014 NCAA Championship meet will be held Saturday, Nov. 22 at 12 p.m., in Terre Haute, Ind., and is hosted by Indiana State University. The race will be ran on the LaVern Gibson Championship Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center.
The Championship meet will consist of 31 teams and 38 individuals competing for the NCAA Championship. The top-two teams from each regional received an automatic bid into the meet, and 13 additional teams received at-large berths based on how well the teams fared against automatic qualifying teams. The runners competing individually qualified, by finishing as one of the top-4 competitors in each regional that was not on a qualifying team.
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