Friday, November 11
College Station, Texas
W 8:30 a.m. | M 9:30 a.m.
Abilene Christian
at
NCAA South Central Regionals
Photo by: Cassie Kelley
All-Region Rono reaches NCAAs a third time
11/11/2022 2:37:00 PM | Cross Country
COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Irene Rono qualified for her third-consecutive NCAA Cross Country Championships appearance Friday after running a 20:30.0 6K to place fifth at South Central Regionals hosted by Texas A&M.
Rono is believed to be ACU's first female cross country runner to advance to three consecutive NCAAs since Olha Kry'yak, who registered regional finishes of fourth, third and fourth between 2004-06.
This fall's NCAA Championship (Nov. 19) will again take place in Stillwater, Okla., where Rono made her NCAA debut in the March of 2021 (21:33.3). She again competed on the Oklahoma State course at this October's Weis-Crockett Invitational, clocking an eighth-place time of 20:53.8.
Next week's race will be Rono's seventh NCAA-sanctioned event in less than two years as she also qualified for West Preliminaries in May of 2021 (10K) and 2022 (5K).
Rono's splits this morning on the Watts Course were 6:45.3 after 2K, 9:42.1 close to the 3K mark, and 14:10.00 after 4K. Her final time was 5.7 seconds ahead of sixth-place Arkansas State's Jaybe Shufelberger (20:35.7), who earned the fourth and final NCAA individual qualifying spot over Incarnate Word's Joy Gill (20:38.4).
As expected, Arkansas and Texas placed first and second with respective team scores of 49 and 102 points. LSU was a distant third with 154 points, edging out the host Aggies by two points.
The South Central Region will be represented by the Razorbacks' and Longhorns' top-seven runners in addition to individual qualifiers Rono, Shufelberger, runner-up Gracie Morris (20:17.1) of TCU, and third-place Sophie Daigle of Louisiana (20:22.2).
Arkansas claimed two runners among the top four, including champion Isabel Van Camp who led wire-to-wire with a time of 20:01.9 - 15.2 seconds ahead of Morris.
ACU women placed 13th of 29 schools (180 runners) overall with 402 points, while the Wildcat men were 12th with 374 points led by Levi Chambers' XC personal best 10K time of 31:38.3.
The Razorbacks posted a sweep of the team titles as their men held off Texas by six points, 49-55. These two squads claimed the top five runners and half of the top 16.
Arkansas' Patrick Kiprop (30:04.09) coasted to an individual victory with his 16-second win over Texas sophomore Isaac Alonzo (30:20.8).
Rono is believed to be ACU's first female cross country runner to advance to three consecutive NCAAs since Olha Kry'yak, who registered regional finishes of fourth, third and fourth between 2004-06.
This fall's NCAA Championship (Nov. 19) will again take place in Stillwater, Okla., where Rono made her NCAA debut in the March of 2021 (21:33.3). She again competed on the Oklahoma State course at this October's Weis-Crockett Invitational, clocking an eighth-place time of 20:53.8.
Next week's race will be Rono's seventh NCAA-sanctioned event in less than two years as she also qualified for West Preliminaries in May of 2021 (10K) and 2022 (5K).
Rono's splits this morning on the Watts Course were 6:45.3 after 2K, 9:42.1 close to the 3K mark, and 14:10.00 after 4K. Her final time was 5.7 seconds ahead of sixth-place Arkansas State's Jaybe Shufelberger (20:35.7), who earned the fourth and final NCAA individual qualifying spot over Incarnate Word's Joy Gill (20:38.4).
As expected, Arkansas and Texas placed first and second with respective team scores of 49 and 102 points. LSU was a distant third with 154 points, edging out the host Aggies by two points.
The South Central Region will be represented by the Razorbacks' and Longhorns' top-seven runners in addition to individual qualifiers Rono, Shufelberger, runner-up Gracie Morris (20:17.1) of TCU, and third-place Sophie Daigle of Louisiana (20:22.2).
Arkansas claimed two runners among the top four, including champion Isabel Van Camp who led wire-to-wire with a time of 20:01.9 - 15.2 seconds ahead of Morris.
ACU women placed 13th of 29 schools (180 runners) overall with 402 points, while the Wildcat men were 12th with 374 points led by Levi Chambers' XC personal best 10K time of 31:38.3.
The Razorbacks posted a sweep of the team titles as their men held off Texas by six points, 49-55. These two squads claimed the top five runners and half of the top 16.
Arkansas' Patrick Kiprop (30:04.09) coasted to an individual victory with his 16-second win over Texas sophomore Isaac Alonzo (30:20.8).
Players Mentioned
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
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