STILLWATER, Okla. - In her final cross country race as an Abilene Christian Wildcat,
Irene Rono Saturday placed 110th of 254 runners at the NCAA Championships with a 6K time of 20:41.9 at the Greiner Family Course.
In two previous trips to nationals, Rono ran a 20:38.3 in Tallahassee (125th) and a 21:33.3 in Stillwater (110th). Earlier this fall Rono recorded a 20:53.8 at the Oklahoma State-based course.
"It's sad for Irene's time in our XC program to come to an end," said head coach
Jarvis Jelen, who helped guide Rono to multiple conference and all-region awards, "but I'm proud of how she closed out her career and how she competed throughout. It's been a pleasure to coach her and we're excited to finish out her career in the upcoming track season."
Rono's splits today were 3:28.7 (1.1K), 6:42.9 (2.05K), 9:37.2 (2.83K), 13:41.0 (4K) and 16:58.9 (4.93K). She moved up 15 places over the final 1,000-meters to finish ahead of athletes from BYU, Northern Arizona and Arkansas.
The South Central regional champion Razorbacks finished 21st in the team standings, while regional runner-up Texas placed 31st.
The women's individual and team titles were won by Katelyn Tuohy (19:27.7) of NC State, which totaled 114 points.
