The Highlands University women placed seventh out of 26 teams and the men placed 18th out of 23 teams at this weekend’s Cowboy Jamboree hosted by Oklahoma State University. Both teams ran without key members of their top five.
Led by senior Sandra Martinez, the HU women achieved the highest team finish since 2003 at the OSU meet. Martinez ran 19:44 over the hilly 5K course to grab 17th in the College Division. She was followed closely by junior transfer Carolina Garcia (28th/20:05). Ana Juarez, who has been the Cowgirls number one runner in every race since joining the team in 2007, came in at 20:24 (46th). Sophomore Brieanna Roper, from Las Vegas Robertson, was the team’s fourth finisher (55th/20:39) and Kari Anglin (Sr., Silver City, NM) completed the scoring in 80th (21:29). Also competing for the women were Amanda Martin (So., Gallup, NM) who placed 99th (22:04) and Nancy Anel (sr., Los Angeles, CA) 114th (22:42). Over 200 women competed in the race.
“We raced without Reyna Montano today, “ said HU coach Bob DeVries, “She has been running right with Sandra all season, we could have placed in the top three with her.”
The men raced without All-American Laurent Ngrikamaro whose wife gave birth to their second child over the weekend. “We missed Laurent, of course,” said DeVries, “but, I was really encouraged by how all the men raced. We had a ton of personal bests and looked strong.” The men raced in the tough Division I race which included nationally ranked DI, DII, NAIA and JUCO teams.
Transfer Nicaise Kazingo (36th/25:31) was the Cowboy’s top finisher at the meet. He was followed by John Ronoh (44th/25:50) back in his first race since recovering from a chest infection. Gabriel Vidal continued to improve, setting a PR by 30 seconds (76th/26:47) and freshman Joshua Garcia of Belen, NM came up big in his first 8K ever (123rd/27:55). Will Jaremko-Wright also set a new personal best for 8k at the Oklahoma meet (141st/28:56). There were 244 finishers in the men’s DI race.
The men and women will now prepare for the always tough RMAC Championships in Grand Junction, CO on October 25th. No fewer than seven nationally ranked men’s and women’s teams are expected to be in that race.
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HERE for the Complete Results from the OSU Meet