Wildcats second at national meet
11/24/2003 12:00:00 AM | Men's Cross Country, Cross Country
Wildcats run to second-place finish
ACU men finish 2nd; Nahimana finishes 23rd in women's race
CARY, N.C. -- ACU placed three runners in the top 10 Saturday at the NCAA Division II national cross country championship meet, but it wasn't enough to toppled Adams State (Colo.) as the Wildcats finished second for the fourth straight year.
Adams State won the men's title with 40 points, while ACU was second with 68 points and Harding (Ark.) was third with 86 points. Adams State also won the women's title with 38 points to the 101 points for second-place Western State (Colo.).
Bernard Manirakiza led ACU's charge, covering the 10,000-meter course in 30 minutes, 58.0 seconds to finish fourth in the individual race. Martin O'Kello was sixth in 31:08.4, while Arthemon Sindayigaya was 10th in 31:23.2. All three Wildcats earned all-America honors.
Adams State, however, had three runners in the top eight, and five in the top 13 as the Grizzlies won the team title. Celedino Rodriguez (30:25.6) won the team title, followed by Matthew Levassiur (seventh), Mohamed Aden (eighth), Joshua Merrick (11th) and Enrique Guerrero (13th).
On the women's side, Justine Nahimana capped her ACU career with a 23rd-place finish, her best finish at the national meet since finishing 10h to earn all-America honors as a freshman in 2002. Lone Star Conference and South Central Region champion Yuliya Stashkiv of ACU did not run at the national meet because of an illness.
