ABILENE –
Kevin Castruita brought home a second-team All-Conference honor but a bout with illness kept Abilene Christian from performing up to their expectations at the Western Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships at Zoe Park on Friday.
ACU's men finished eighth in the men's race and the women's team placed ninth.
"On both sides, we got unlucky a little bit with some sickness and if anyone says that luck doesn't play a part in sport, they're lying to you," said ACU cross country coach Nathan Meeuwenberg. "Bummed out a little bit with the finish but we're gonna rest up and get healthy and tomorrow's another day."
Castruita earned second-team All-WAC honors by finishing 18th and covering the eight-kilometer course in 234:40.
"Kevin's been training so well and he actually caught a little bit of sickness as well so to be able to race the way he did while battling that; it just goes to show the quality of training that he has," said Meeuwenberg. "There's that extra gear that he usually has towards the end that he didn't have today just because of his body fighting that virus so to be All-Conference just shows the level of training that he's done over the course of a few the last few weeks."
Samuel Lanham was 18th at 24:40, followed by
Mikhail Fortner in 45th at 25:45,
O'Brien Verdin in 62nd at 26:32 and
Zach Martin finishing out the scoring five in 65th at 26:42.
Gabe Embree was 72nd at 27:06 and
Jacob Russell was 73rd at 27:12.
Pre-meet favorite California Baptist won the meet with 17 points, followed by Utah Valley at 57, Southern Utah at 67, Texas-Arlington at 152, Utah Tech at 165, Tarleton State at 166, Grand Canyon at 207, ACU at 213, Stephen F. Austin at 215, Texas-Rio Grande Valley at 255 and Seattle at 306.
Arturs Medveds of CBU won the individual title at 23:37.
Utah Valley upset pre-meet favorite CBU in the women's race, finishing with 30 points. CBU was second at 36, followed by UTA at 92, SUU at 115, GCU at 134, Seattle at 192, UT at 200, SFA at 216, ACU at 247, TSU at 303 and UTRGV at 306.
Katelyn Coldicott finished 36th to lead the Wildcats, covering the six kilometers in 22:39.
Peyton Bornstein was the second Cat to finish, coming in at 23:19 for 51st place.
Kate Williams placed 54th at 23:23,
Tessa Holderman was 57th at 23:24 and
Bella Evans rounded out the scoring five for ACU in 67th at 23:47.
Autumn Smith placed 69th at 23:52, followed by
Kate Hansen at 24:59 in 77th and
Hadley Phillips in 78th at 25:02.
Greta Karinauskaite of CBU won the individual crown in 19:48.9.
