New Mexico Highlands University cross-county standout
Nicaise Kazingo raced his way to a spot in the NCAA National Championship meet with a strong seventh place finish at the Central Region Championships in Wayne, Neb. on Saturday morning. Kazingo, who has been All-RMAC in each of his first two seasons at Highlands, will make his first trip to the national meet when he races at the NCAA Division II Championships, to be held November 21st in Evansville, Indiana.
As a team, the HU men ran 9th in the 22-team field that featured some of the top cross country programs in the nation. No fewer than seven of the teams in the men’s race had been nationally-ranked during the 2009 season. Adams State (13) was almost perfect in placing first with Western State runner up (47), Colorado School of Mines third (100) and Metro State fourth (142). Eight of the top ten teams came from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference.
“Nicaise ran a smart, controlled race,” said HU coach Bob DeVries, “His goal was to get to nationals and he ran his race perfectly. This is by far the strongest region in the nation. Thirteen of the top 20 finishers in the meet have been All-American at some point and the guy who was tenth in the nation last year finished 26th on Saturday. It is an incredibly tough meet.”
Highland’s
Moses Kirui was disappointed in his bid to grab the second individual qualifying spot in Saturday’ race. Kirui battled Nebraska-Kearney’s Tanner Fruit over much of the 10K course and was unable to match the UNK runner over the final 400 meters and came up one spot short of joining Kazingo at nationals.
Gabriel Vidal made a valiant effort to try and propel the Cowboys to a team qualifying spot. Racing for the final time in HU purple, the senior from Bell Gardens, CA, was the team’s third finisher for just the second time in his career. “Gabe raced his heart out, “said DeVries, “I’m proud of how hard all our men raced.”
Senior
Carolina Garcia led the HU women with a 31st-place finish on Saturday. Garcia improved nearly 50 places from her finish in 2008 and helped the Cowgirl team improve to a 13th-place finish, up from 19th a year ago. “Carol ran the best time of her career on Saturday, she should make Academic All-American with her performance, “noted DeVries.
Adams (36), Western (88) and Augustana (90) were the top three women’s teams with Mary, N.D. (169), Metro (175) and Minnesota-Duluth (179) rounding out the top six heading to Indiana for the NCAA’s.
Seniors
Sandra Martinez (68th)and
Reyna Montano (74th)ran second and third for the women while freshman
Ashley Lovato (80th) and former Robertson High School standout
Brieanna Roper (120th) completed the team scorers.
Click
HERE for Complete Results