LUBBOCK – For the second time in as many meets, Abilene Christian's men's and women's cross country teams were led to the finish line at the Texas Tech Open by junior
Carnley Graham and freshman
Kevin Kipkosgei.
Kipkosgei followed his Sept. 1 win at ACU's Naimadu Classic with a runner-up showing Friday morning, completing the 8K course in 26:20.7. Red Raider senior Miguel Bautista, who hadn't competed in a collegiate race since spring of 2017, won the meet in 25:44.0, and back in third place was South Plains freshman Japhet Toroitich (26:30.0).
Bautista's triumph sparked the home team to a convincing victory of 33 points as his next four teammates all placed in the top 10. South Plains was second with 49 points followed by Lubbock Christian (117) and ACU (127). The men's race featured 11 teams with 89 runners.
South Plains had four runners finish among the top 12, while LCU claimed the eighth-place finisher in addition to six runners who placed between 22nd and 38th.
The Wildcats were a bit more spread out with freshman
Levi Chambers coming in 16th (27:33.8), senior
Travis Nichols finishing 33rd (28:38.0) and the trio of
Grant O'Neil (29:57.4),
Drew Cummings (29:57.8) and
Seth Crockett (30:04.3) claiming spots 52nd through 54th.
ACU's women's team placed third with 89 points, coming in behind the Red Raiders (48) and Wayland Baptist (84). Graham (18:24.6) again outpaced her Texas Tech competition, but settled for fourth place overall with South Plains freshman Gladys Jemaiyo winning the 5K in 17:56.5 followed by Eastern New Mexico's Mercy Rotich 18:04.7 and unattached competitor Nokuthula Dlamini (18:23.1).
The Wildcats' No. 2 runner was freshman
Sarah Wagler, who placed 15th of 114 runners in 19:38.5, while their next three runners (
Hannah Marut,
Briahna Gerlach,
Soren Underwood) placed 26th, 28th and 33rd, respectively.
"This meet was planned as a low-key race where we focused on keeping our packs as tight as possible," said head cross country coach
Jarvis Jelen. "The women executed the plan fairly well, but the men have more work to do in that department. We're looking forward to letting loose a little more next week on the fast Texas A&M course."
ACU's races vs. the Aggies are slated for Saturday, Sept. 22 in College Station, Texas.
