Kipngeno Earns Top 10 Finish at South Central Regionals

BRYAN-COLLEGE STATION, Texas - Texas A&M-Corpus Christi's men and women's cross country programs competed at the NCAA South Central Regionals with senior Dennis Kipngeno leading the way with a top 10 finish for the men Friday morning to qualify for nationals.

"For the men, I was really impressed with how Dennis and Enock raced," said head coach Brent Ericksen. "They went with that top group and battled. Both of them earned All-Region honors."

Kipngeno earned the highest finish of the day in seventh for the men with a time of 30:39.6 in the first 10K of the season, punching his ticket for the NCAA Championships. Enock Kimutai, a junior finished 19th on the men's side with a 31:19.3 mark. Juan Salinas III, a graduate student, scored third for A&M-Corpus Christi with a mark of 34:15.2.

Senior Hunter Haas fought his way to cross the line with 35:17.5 for fourth best on the team. Sophomore Gregorio Alcorta was the final scoring runner for the Islanders with a time of 36:03.5. Logan Rickey and Rogerio Gomez were the final two finishers for the team.

"For the women, we had four of the six run faster than their 6K on this same course from earlier in the year," continued Ericksen. " We have some work to do to get back to being the team that won conference twice in the last four years."

Faith Bett, a graduate student led the path for the Islanders on the women's side with a time of 21:23.3 to earn 34th in the competition. Senior Sharon Kiprop ran her way to a 21:39.9 mark to finish 42nd overall and second for the Islanders. Classmate Cambria Clark scored third for the team with a time of 23:58.7.

Riley Cowan, a senior,  was the fourth scorer for A&M-Corpus Christi, crossing the finish line with a 24:46.0 mark. Redshirt freshman Ayanna Palomo earned a time of 25:10.5 to round out the team scoring in fifth. Junior Tristan Nemac rounded out the Islanders and fought her way to a 25:42.8 mark.

The NCAA Selection Show for the NCAA Championships will take place at 4:00 p.m. CT on Saturday, November 12 on NCAA.com.

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