HU Men and Women Run 5th at Texas Tech Meet
Both the HU Men’s and Women’s cross country squads placed 5th out of 12 full teams at the Texas Tech Open held at the Meadowbrook Country Club on Friday in Lubbock, TX. Host Texas Tech—nationally ranked in DI—took top honors in both races.
Carolina Garcia and Ashley Lovato continued to lead the women’s squad although they flip-flopped positions from the team’s opener two weeks earlier. Garcia placed 12th overall as the Cowgirls number one finisher. The senior from Los Angeles, CA ran the 5K course in 20:08. Lovato was close behind. The Cibola (Albuquerque, NM) grad ran 14th among collegiate runners in 20:32.
“The course wasn’t tough, “noted HU coach Bob DeVries, “but it was about 90 percent grass and pretty long grass at that. So times were a little slow. But the women raced even harder than the first meet at UNM.”
Seniors Sandra Martinez (Los Angeles, CA)--[21:06, 21st place] and Reyna Montano (Bell Gardens, CA)—[21:21, 25th]moved up closer to the top two runners and looked strong, passing people throughout the 5K course.
On the men’s side, Nicaise Kazingo again ran an outstanding race. Kazingo, an All-RMAC runner in ’08, placed second behind a tough DI opponent for the second time this season. This time it was Tech’ Gilbert Limo just edging out the HU runner 24:55 to 25:01for the 5-mile course. Newcomer Moses Kirui looked much improved from his race two weeks ago, placing fourth overall in 25:27. “Moses was much closer to Nicaise this week. This is going to be a very good 1-2 for us throughout the season,” said DeVries.
Rounding out the top 5 for the men were John Ronoh (27th, 27:34); Gabriel Vidal (38th, 28:16) and Joshua Garcia (44th, 28:40). “We need to get these 3 men much closer to the front if we want to go to nationals. We can’t make it without 5 strong runners,” said assistant coach Joe Quintana.
The squads will compete in the Cowboy Jamboree at Oklahoma State University on Oct. 3rd
For Complete Results Click HERE.
GO COWBOYS & COWGIRLS!!!