Rono in midseason form as ‘Cats open season at home

Friday, September 2

Abilene, Texas

6:30 p.m.

Abilene Christian

ACU Naimadu Classic

Results

Photo by: Cassie Kelley

9/2/2022 9:41:00 PM | Cross Country

ABILENE, Texas – The ACU cross country teams opened the 2022 campaign with a pair of third place finishes on Friday evening, hosting the Naimadu Classic for the sixth consecutive season. 2021 WAC individual champion Irene Rono began the year with a victory, while Levi Chambers' sixth-place finish ended up as ACU's top men's finisher.

INSIDE THE MEET

Location: ACU Cross Country Course
Race Length: Men 8K | Women 6.2K
Results

QUOTABLE

"Overall, the Naimadu Classic was a great experience, and we're thankful for the nice weather and all the great competition from other programs. We're also thankful for the great support we had from the ACU community," head coach Jarvis Jelen said. "From a team perspective, I was really happy with how the women competed, from top to bottom. It's tough for mostly freshman to come out in their first race with the confidence to race that well. We have a lot of good things to build off of and things to improve upon going forward."

HOW IT HAPPENED

Freshman Peyton Bornstein recorded a time of 14:53.6 in her collegiate debut, good enough for 12th place.
Kate Williams (15:17.8) and Jenna Keeley (15:21.0) finished within one place of one another and gave the Purple and White a fifth of the top 20.
Bella Evans was the fifth Wildcat to cross the finish line, doing so in 15:38.7 to land in 23rd individually.
On the men's side, ACU was without Garrison Shindler, but Neal Helgerson (18.56.5, 12th) and Gabe Embree (19:01.4, 13th) each turned in strong performances in his absence.
Gabe Trevino (19:32.3, 23rd) and O'Brien Verdin (20:00.9, 31st) rounded out the top five for the Wildcats.