Kazingo Tops OSU Jamboree Field
Kirui and Garcia crack top ten as Men place 4th and Women 5th in College Division at OSU meet
Nicaise Kazingo and Carolina Garcia
Highlands University's Nicaise Kazingo ran away with the race Saturday in the College Division of the Cowboy Jamboree hosted by Oklahoma State University. The sophomore from Burundi took the lead from the gun and never looked back as he cruised to a nearly 20-second victory covering the 8K course in 25:00.
"Nicaise was not pushed too hard," said HU coach Bob DeVries, "He went out well for the first 5k and then was able to run controlled over the last couple of miles, which is what we wanted for this week."
After a miscommunication about the start time for Saturday's race, HU frosh Mose Kirui found himself literally sprinting to the starting line just moments before the gun went off. "Moses probably sprinted 250 meters to make the start. I wasn't even sure he had his shoes tied," noted DeVries. Despite his problems at the start, Kirui stayed calm and moved his way through the field to finish fourth overall in the college race.
Running the best race of his Highlands career--according to the HU coaches---senior Gabriel Vidal emerged as the Cowboys third finisher (26th, 26:30) and earned a T-shirt for his top 30 finish."Those Jamboree T-shirts are pretty special," noted DeVries, "the races are huge, the teams are good and you have to run very well to earn a shirt."
John Ronoh (56th, 27:13) and Mario Armijo (81st, 27:45) completed the scoring as the Cowboys placed fourth out of 28 teams in the OSU field.
The HU women were led by senior Carolina Garcia who cracked the top ten among the nearly 200 runners in the Jamboree race. Garcia (9th, 19:07) improved her 2008 time by nearly a full minute to lead the HU women to a fifth place team finish."Carol is really racing with some confidence," noted coach DeVries, "she got out good and kept pushing herself through the tough hilly sections of the race."
Two more Cowgirls earned coveted Jamboree T-shirts on Saturday as well. Freshman Ashley Lovato (25th, 19:49)continued racing well in her first season and senior Sandra Martinez (26th, 19:52) earned her second career t-shirt at the OSU meet with her finish.
Reyna Montano (42nd, 20:25) and Brieanna Roper (108th, 21:57) were the fourth and fifth runners in Saturday's race.
Both teams will now prepare for the always tough Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships to be run in Denver on October 23rd.
Click HERE for the OSU Cowboy Jamboree Reults
GO COWBOYS & COWGIRLS!!!