RC women finish 8th at HSU Invite

The Ranger College women's track and field team had several things already going against the favor when they arrive at the Hardin-Simmons Invitational on Saturday. First, they didn't field a large team – in numbers or size of athletes.

Secondly, and even more importantly, the team was facing off against some of the state's top track programs on a breezy day in Abilene. Wind gusts on Feb. 23 topped 50 miles per hour at times.

"The wind was tough on everyone," said RC head coach Kathy Graham. "Needless to say, none of the times for anyone were great, but our team did a lot better than most. They did some nice things on a day that made it tough to do much of anything."

One thing the Lady Rangers did was establish a new school mark in the 4x400-meter relay. Alexandra Luna, Marissa Gonzalez, Yenifer Martinez and Jessica Thomas-Billot shattered the 5-minute mark in the race en route to taking second with a time of 4 minutes, 52.42 seconds. Texas Lutheran won the race with a time of 4:37.0.

Luna, a freshman from San Benito, Texas, and Thomas-Billot added to the Lady Rangers' medal count with outstanding efforts in their individual events. Luna won the women's 800-meter run, while Thomas-Billot, a freshman from Castelnaudary, France, raced her way to the top of the women's 1,500-meter standings.

Luna's winning time in the 800 was 2:47.48. A strong push over the final 200 meters helped her hold off a push from North Central Texas' Erin Struxness. Struxness finished second at 2:47.56.

Thomas-Billot had a much easier time grabbing the gold in the 1,500. She turned in a time of 5:30.16 and finished more than 9 seconds ahead of her nearest competitor, Anna Wilgenbusch of Dallas.
The RC track teams will return to action on March 23 when they return to Abilene to compete in the McMurry Invitational.