LEVELLAND—The South Plains College men's and women's cross country teams will look for a repeat performance when they travel to Snyder on Saturday following a week one outing which concluded with a pair of top-five finishes at the Texas Tech Open.
The men's 8k will get underway at 9 a.m. at the Western Texas College cross country course, followed by the women's 5k at 9:35.
Last time out:
All-American Felix Kosgei ran a 25:02.50 in the men's 8k of the Texas Tech Open at the Chaparral Ridge Golf Course, finishing second overall and leading the Texans to a first-place finish. South Plains' Andrew Bosquez placed fifth with a time of 25:57.10 amongst 93 runners. Benjamin Ronoh placed 18th with a time of 26:48.10, as the Texans finished with an average team time of 26:47.16 and 52 total team points.
"Our guys throughout the race, they were racing, and they were trying to get better, and I really liked it from that standpoint," South Plains cross country coach Frank Barker said. "We still have a lot of gaps between number one and number seven, and we need to close that down and get a little bit tighter. That's going to happen; they're working."
The Lady Texans earned a fifth-place finish as Seselia Dala and Leslie Romero each finished inside the top 20 amongst 100 runners. Dala finished 11th overall with a time of 19:00.50 in the women's 5k, while Romero placed 17th with a mark of 19:21.70. Poro Gahekave finished 28thoverall with her time of 19:56.90 as the Lady Texans finished with 116 team points and an average overall time of 20:26.42.
"I really feel like they did pretty good, but I know they can do a whole lot better," Barker said. "I think we got too comfortable with where we were during the race. When you get that way, you don't run to the best that you can run. If we can get through that hurdle those girls are going to be pretty awesome. They're great kids and they work hard, they're going to bring it together, and they're going to be a force for people to be reckoned with."
A full recap and complete results will be posted online at spctexans.com following the meet. South Plains track and field head coach Erik Vance, along with head cross country coach Frank Barker discussed the upcoming meet which can be seen in the video below.