ACU Men Win Naimadu, Women Second

ABILENE – Abilene Christian won the men's race and placed second in the women's at the ACU Naimadu Classic on Friday.
 
ACU fought off Oral Roberts to get the men's win and placed all eight runners in the top 15.
 
Kevin Castruita led the Wildcats in third place at 24:34.47 on the eight-kilometer course. Samuel Lanham was fifth at 24:50, Gabe Embree was sixth at 25:00, Garrison Shindler was ninth at 25:15 and O'Brien Verdin finished 10th to round at the scoring 10 at 25:18.
 
Mikhail Fortner placed 13th at 25:58, Jacob Russell was 14th at 26:01 and Zach Martin 15th at 26:21.
 
ACU won with a score of 29, followed by Oral Roberts at 44, Southwestern at 80, Ranger at 90, North Central Texas at 126, Texas Lutheran at 165 and Dallas at 190.
 
The Cats finished in a team time of 2:04:58 with an average time of 24:59.
 
"We're fit; we're ready to go," said ACU Cross Country Coach Nathan Meeuwenberg.  "We were able to get five in in that time. Our guys are ready to roll and. They know that they're going to peak in two weeks. We didn't run very well at Chili Pepper and this was a big confidence thing."
 
The Wildcat women came on strong and threatened late but Oral Roberts runners were able to just hold off Peyton Bornstein and Bella Evans to capture the team win.
 
ORU finished at 23, followed by ACU at 23, NCTC at 90, Southwestern at 121 and TLU at 125.
 
Katelyn Coldicott was third at 22:26 and Tessa Holderman was fourth at 22:41. Bornstein was seventh at 22:48, Evans was eighth at 22:50 and Autumn Smith finished out the scoring five in 10th at 23:16.
 
Kate Williams was 11th at 23:26, Kate Hansen was 12th at 23:30 and Hadley Phillips was 22nd at 24:41.
 
"We just continue to make good steps forward and that was the goal - to be a championship team," said Meeuwenberg. "I think everything seems to be pointing to us peaking at the right time in two weeks when we host the WAC championships. I think Kaitlin continues to make good steps forward and raced well. Everyone ran a good race. I think the two that stood out was, is Kaitlin Coldicott. I really that Autumn, our freshman, continues to just make good steps forward. She's just on the cusp of a pretty big breakthrough for her."
 
The Cats return to the Abilene course in two weeks, hosting the WAC Championships on Oct. 27.