Arlington, TX - The TXWES Lady Rams had a stellar day at the DBU Old Glory Gallup cross-country meet at Joe Pool Lake in Arlington.
The Rams finished 7th out of 33 teams in a field that included a large number of NCAA D1, NCAA D2, NCAA D3, NAIA and JUCO teams. The Rams beat the defending SAC women's cross country champions, Oklahoma City University, who finished 11th at the meet. The Rams were led by
Ashlei McDonald, who finished 13th out of 287 runners in a new personal best of 18:09 for the 5K course. She was followed closely by teammate
Hasnae Goulamzi, who finished 22nd in 18:31.
The third runner for TXWES was Sarays Flores, who finished 61st in 19:17, which was a huge personal best. The fourth runner for TXWES was Ana Segura, who finished 99th in 19:52, also a big personal best. The 5th and 6th runners for TXWES were
Haylee Bentley, who finished 130th in 20:27 and
Sharon Chepkorir, who finished 138th in 20:32.
"Our ladies really took a big step forward today in becoming a serious contender for the SAC championship later this Fall. The top four ladies really ran fast today, and the next two also ran well, so we are starting to develop into a pretty solid group as we head into the championship part of the season. All the ladies are really working hard and making nice progress. We've got a month to get even better before the SAC Championship," said Head Coach Randy Dalzell.
The Rams finished 10th out of 29 teams in the men's race. Douglas Kiprotich led the team with a huge new personal best of 25:02 for 8K. He finished 26th out of 294 runners. The second and third runners for TXWES were
Walid Jarfani (48th in 25:30 and
Brian Kiplangat (51st in 25:30).
They were followed by
Jamon Smith, who was 85th in 26:05. The final scoring runner for the Rams was
Andrew Mitchell, who finished in a big personal best of 26:41 in 124th place.
Francisco Segura also ran a big personal best of 27:11 to finish 144th, and
Martin Murillo finished in 195th place as the final Ram runner.
"We were missing
Nathan Buckeridge today, so that hurt us on team scoring significantly. Douglas Kiprotich had a great race, and a number of other guys also ran nice personal bests. We need to get Nathan back healthy and then just do a good job of taking care of ourselves as we prepare for the SAC meet over the next month," said Dalzell.
