Ngirakamaro Earns All-American Honors at National Meet
HU Athlete to be featured on CBS College Sports Network
Highlands senior Laurent Ngirakamaro earned All-American honors with a 25th place finish out of 184 runners Saturday at the NCAA Division II National Cross Country Championships in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania. The top 30 finishers earn NCAA Division II All-American honors. The race was run in less than ideal conditions with temperatures in the mid 20's and a couple inches of snow on the course. Ngrikamaro covered the 10,000-meter course in a time of 31:57 to earn his second consecutive NCAA All-American cross country honor---the first two-time NCAA All-American since the program joined the NCAA in 1992. Ngrikamaro placed 11th in 2007 to lead the Cowboys to a top ten national finish.
“Conditions were pretty brutal,” noted long-time HU Coach Bob DeVries, “It snowed and the winds blew hard from Wednesday right through the race. Laurent had never run on snow before Saturday.” While both the coach and Ngrikamaro had expressed high hopes for a top ten finish at the national meet, DeVries commented that conditions “sort of conspired against” the senior from Burundi.
Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference teams dominated the competition at nationals. Adams State claimed both the team championships and Western State emerged as a surprise runner-up on the men’s side as teams from Abilene Christian, Harding University and Chico State faltered in the tough racing conditions. Scotty Bauhs of Chico State was the men’s individual champion while Jessica Pixler of Seattle Pacific claimed her second consecutive women’s national title. In addition, 12 of the top 30 men’s finishers and seven of the top 30 women came from the RMAC.
Ngrikamaro will be one of the featured athletes during the CBS College Sports Network coverage of the race to be broadcast in December. The Highlands senior lost his father as a result of ethnic warfare in his Burundi and turned to running as a way to escape the harsh conditions of life in his homeland. CBS film crews followed Ngrikamaro as he prepared for Saturday’s race and interviewed him for the broadcast, “It’s a compelling story,” said CBS producer Sarah Rinaldi.
Click HERE for Complete Results
GO COWBOYS!!!