HU senior Laurent Ngrikamaro earned a return trip to the NCAA national championships with a sixth place finish at the NCAA Central Region Championships Saturday in Kearney, Nebraska. The 2007 All-American punched his return ticket with a 31:25 clocking over the tough 10-kilometer course on the University of Nebraska-Kearney Country Club.
The Highlands men’s team, hoping for a fourth trip to nationals in the past ten seasons, fell just short. The Cowboys placed seventh in the 24-team field to miss qualifying by one spot. Adams State, ranked number one nationally, took the team title for the third time in the past four years. RMAC runner-up Western State placed second at the Regional as well. All but two of the top 19 runners in the race came from RMAC schools
Minnesota State-Mankato, the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Champion, finished a distant third while Colorado Mines took fourth. Metro State took fifth and UC-Colorado Springs got by the HU harriers for the final qualifying spot, 205-221.
“It was a pretty brutal race,” noted HU coach Bob DeVries, “Temperatures were in the low 30’s and the wind chill was in the teens and the course was tough as well.”
Nicaise Kazingo (17th, 32:12), the RMAC Freshman-of-the-Year, missed the second individual qualifying spot by one place as Nate Preston of Wayne State finished just ahead of the Highlands number two-runner. Junior, John Ronoh, who has battled bronchitis for a month, placed 47th in 33:34. “John ran his heart out,” said DeVries, “But he has been sick---it’s like the heart is the engine and the lungs are the carburetor--- if your carburetor is clogging, the engine is going to be missing. John did all he could.” Ronoh had finished among the top 20 in the regional meet last year.
Gabriel Vidal (73rd, 34:33) and Frosh Joshua Garcia (79th, 34:59) completed the HU scoring. “Gabriel and Josh raced right about where we thought they could, I’m proud of the effort of all our men,” added DeVries. Also competing for the Cowboys at the regional meet were Will Jaremko-Wright (111th, 36:38) and Cesar Alvizo (128th, 38:19).
The Highlands women placed 19th out of 24 regional teams. Junior transfer Carolina Garcia led the Cowgirls in 79th place with a time of 24:26 for the 6-kilometer race. She was followed by Seniors Ana Juarez (87th, 24:39) and Sandra Martinez (94th, 24:49)---each running their last cross country race in HU purple.
Junior Reyna Montano (104th, 25:01) was the fourth HU finisher and Las Vegas Robertson graduate Brieanna Roper was the team’s final scorer (125th, 26:00). Amanda Martin (135th, 26:21) of Gallup, NM completed the HU team at the regional.
For Complete Men's Results from the NCAA Central Region Championships click HERE
For Complete Women's Results from the NCAA Central Region Championships click HERE