ABILENE -- A one-two Baylor finish carried its men's cross country team to a slim 26-29 win over Abilene Christian Friday night at the Wildcats' Cross Country Course.
Connor Laktasic led the 19-man 8K race with a time of 24:46.60 and teammate Ryan Day was approximately 18 seconds behind at 25:04.04. ACU junior
Kevin Kipkosgei prevented a three-place sweep by edging Jeremy Meadows by fewer than two seconds, 25:19.10 to 25:200, and then the Wildcats claimed places fifth through eighth led by sophomores
Denis Lagat (25:39.45) and Maxel Kiplagat (25:44.41).
Juniors
Colton Gates (25:51.16) and
Levi Chambers (25:59.27) placed seventh and eighth for ACU.
"It was a close race," said cross country coach
Jarvis Jelen. "We took it very seriously because we don't know how many meets we'll run this year. And even though there were some off races tonight, overall I thought we were solid. It was just good to get out here and compete."
In the women's 5K, Baylor earned five of the top seven times to defeat the Wildcats, 21-39. Celia Holmes was the victor in 17:15.80 and ACU's
Briahna Gerlach was runner-up in 17:27.65. Intrasquad winner
Grace White came in fifth place at 17:56.33.
"Being mentally consistent and physically strong for that last mile were my biggest takeaways from tonight's race," said Gerlach, "especially since it's been so long since we've raced other teams."
The original plan for tonight's race was a quadrangular, featuring Texas Tech and UTEP in addition to Baylor but the Miners and Red Raiders were forced to cancel for various reasons.
If Baylor dropped out, the Wildcats would have run a time trial. But even with the depleted schedule and reduction of opponents (TCU canceled a Sept. 5 date here), ACU cross country remains in a positive mental state.
"We've grown close as a team," said Gerlach. "Even in an uncertain atmosphere, we're still competitive, still want to do well while having fun. I like it ... removes some of the stress off things. Every chance we get to race it's awesome, but if not, we'll still keep training as if we are still racing."
The Wiildcats return to action Saturday Oct. 17 for the Naimadu Classic. Start time is to be announced.
