Men's Results | Women's Results
RIVERSIDE, Calif. – Powered by a pair of All-WAC performances, the NM State women's cross country team came up with a fourth-place finish at the WAC Cross Country Championships while the Aggies' men's squad earned an eighth-place finish Saturday morning at the UC Riverside Ag Ops Course.
MEN'S RACE
• A strong push over the last 1.4 kilometers by graduate student
Cole Shugart allowed him to flirt with All-WAC honors. In 31
st place at the 6.6 kilometer mark, Shugart kicked it into high gear over the final stages of the course in order to finish 21
st in a time of 24:41.7.
• In addition to Shugart, two other NM State runners finished in the upper half of the 102-man field.
Anekin Hetman (25:08.7) placed 35
th while
Micah Too (25:26.3) posted a 49
th-place finish.
•
Matt Goddard (58
th, 25:42.4) and
Anthony Molina (61
st, 25:46.3) were the Aggies' third and fourth finishers respectively.
•
Pedro Espinoza (73
rd, 26:29.5) and
Dilan Sanchez (75
th, 26:30.7) rounded out NM State's group of scoring runers.
•
Nick Ortiz (78
th, 26:39.8) and
Jacob Grosch (93
rd, 27:24.4) also competed for NM State in Riverside.
• With Shugart leading the way, NM State recorded an eighth-place finish among the 13 teams in contention for the league title. The Aggies beat out SFA (ninth), UTRGV (10
th), Tarleton (11
th), Seattle U (12
th) and Chicago State (13
th).
• California Baptist claimed its second-straight WAC Men's Cross Country Championship by having its top five runners finish first through fifth. Utah Valley (42 points) secured a runner-up finish while Grand Canyon (110 points) took third.
WOMEN'S RACE
• As predicted by the league's coaches earlier in the week, NM State placed fourth as a team.
• Leading the way for the Aggies in Riverside was junior
Richelle Sandin who made her way up the leaderboard through the course of the six-kilometer race. Sandin covered the six-kilometer course in a time of 20:50.3 – good for 12
th place and an All-WAC Second Team honor.
• Not far behind Sandin was
Maggie Gibbs who was the Aggies' only other top 20 finishers. Gibbs' time of 20:57.8 allowed her to place 16
th and join Sandin on the All-WAC Second Team.
• All of the Aggies' top five finishers placed among the fastest 27 runners at the WAC Championships.
Thobile Amon narrowly missed out on an All-WAC honor, placing 22
nd in a time of 21:20.0 while
Emily Stutesman generated a 24
th-place finish by posting a time of 21:32.0.
•
Thulisile Amon rounded out the Aggies' top five finishers by getting clocked in a 27
th-place time of 21:34.0.
•
Mia Regan (41
st, 22:25.7) and
Kayla O'Connell (57
th, 23:00.2) rounded out NM State's contingent of runners.
• Five of the top 11 finishers wore Utah Valley uniforms which allowed the Wolverines to claim the WAC Women's Cross Country title with 34 points. That total edged out runner-up California Baptist (41 points) while Abilene Christian (62 points) placed third and boasted the individual champion with Irene Romo (19:44.2).
QUOTABLE | HEAD COACH JOSEPH RATH
"A lot of the times the Pre-Championship Polls are just based off of the last race, and on the men's side our guys knew they were better than 10
th and they went out and showed that today. After racing on this course just a few weeks ago, it helped us out today.
On the women's side, it was really cool to see how our top five finishers today progressed throughout the year.
Thulisile Amon took off almost a full minute from her time on this course a few weeks back to work her way into that mix for us. I'm really happy with what we were able to do on the women's side and this is probably the best top five I've ever had the pleasure to coach at NM State. The WAC as a whole is an extremely strong cross country conference on the women's side, so getting the chance to compete alongside some teams who have a good shot at making it to nationals really gave us a chance to see where we stack up especially as we head into regional action in a few weeks."
COMING UP NEXT
• In a little under two weeks, the Aggies will travel to Provo, Utah, for the NCAA Mountain Regional meet. BYU is serving as the host of the regional meet which is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 12.
++NM State++
