LEVELLAND, Texas—It's been 19 years since the South Plains College men's cross country team has won a national championship.
When the Texans travel to El Dorado, Kansas on Saturday to compete at the 2016 NJCAA National Cross Country Championships at the Prairie Trails Golf Course, this will be a group that holds no concern of that 19-year title drought and believes they are the team to beat when they take the starting line.
"We go into the national meet ranked third, and that's fine, but I actually think we're the team to beat," South Plains head cross country coach Frank Barker said. "I coach these guys, and I'm with them every day, and what I'm seeing in this group when I look in their eyes is something I didn't see last year at this time. They're hungry. They have it in their minds they're going to go up there and win it."
The Texans come into the final week of the season ranked third in the latest USTFCCCA National Coaches' Poll. Central Arizona is ranked second, while Iowa Central is ranked first.
South Plains will be led by Felix Kosgei, a freshman from Eldoret, Kenya who has placed first six times in seven races this season. Kosgei led the Texans to a Region V Championship title on Oct. 29 with a dazzling first place finish at Harry McAdams Park in Hobbs, New Mexico, running a 24:18.80 in the men's 8K.
Kosgei will be one of the favorites to win on Saturday, but the Texans will need more than just a top place individual finish to capture gold. If you look back to their previous outing when the Texans won the region, South Plains swept the top five positions, capturing a perfect team score thanks to the likes of Omero Rodriguez, Jose Silva, Deric Martinez and Connor Hughes who finished two, three, four and five, respectively.
"Ideally we would like to have four guys in the top 15, and the fifth one around 20, and then you would have a really good shot at winning it," Barker said. "If you look at the teams coming in, it will probably take about 70 points to win it. At this point in the game I think it comes down to who wants it the most, and our guys are really hungry for it."
South Plains will also be looking for a strong performance in the women's 5K when the Lady Texans take to the course. The Lady Texans head into Saturday ranked 14th in the country, led by Freshman and Amarillo native Seselia Dala.
Dala played a crucial role in helping the Lady Texans to a second place finish at the Regional Championships with a time of 18:54.78, placing fourth amongst 37 runners. If the Lady Texans want to put themselves into title contention on Saturday, they will need strong outings from Leslie Romero and Poro Gahekave.
Romero proved capable of just that, as the freshman from Houston placed fifth at regionals with a time of 19:15.82. Gahekave also finished inside the top 10, crossing the finish line at the 19:36.96 mark. The Lady Texans come into the weekend with nothing to lose and so much to gain, and will look to play spoiler and place themselves into a position to shock the landscape of the women's cross country final rankings.
"We've put together a pretty good bunch of kids on the ladies' side, and they're finally starting to mature and figure it out," Barker said. "They're starting to figure out that hard work pays big dividends. We may not be able to win it this year, but I think we can play a big story in who does win it, just by what we take away from other teams, and that's what we want to do."