This past Saturday, the Arizona men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet in Louisville, Kentucky. The men’s team took 16th place with 375 points in the unseeded 8K race with Collins Kibet as its top runner. On the women’s side, Claire Green was the top runner, helping the team get a total of 203 points in the unseeded 6K race.
For the men’s side, Kibet was the team’s highest finisher, taking 5th place overall with a time of 24:11.6. This marks the third time this season that Kibet has finished as Arizona’s highest placing runner.
Following in after Kibet was Sam Willis, who ran a time of 25:07.5 and finished in 64th. Patrick Leary finished in 89th overall with a time of 25:18.0. Jonas Legernes finished in 97th with a time of 25:24.8, and Seamus White ran a time of 25:39.2, finishing in 120th. Matthew Beer and Daniom Tecle finished in 167th and 171st with times of 26:15.7 and 26:19.9, respectively.
This meet marked improvement for the team. Every runner that ran at the Roy Griak Invitational earlier in the season improved their 8K time at the NCAA Pre-Nationals meet.
Green led the way for the women’s side, having the strongest finish of her season thus far. Green finished in fourth overall with a time of 20:55.7. This was the first time this season that Green was the women’s top finisher.
Molly Callahan placed in sixth with a time of 20:57.9. Addi Zerrenner took 20th place with a time of 21:21.5.
Other notable women’s finishers were Kayla Ferron, who finished in 84th with a time of 22:11.5, Kate Penney, who came in 89th place with a time of 22:13.8, and McKenna Gaffney, who clocked a time of 22:24.1 and finished in 106th. Kirsten Vergara rounded out the women’s team, finishing in 141st with a time of 22:44.5.
Ferron, Penney, Gaffney and Vergara all finished with improved 6K times from the Roy Griak Invitational in September.
The Wildcats’ next meet will be Friday, Oct. 23, when they travel to Tempe and compete in the ASU Cross Country Invitational.
The meet is set to begin at 4 p.m. MST.
Follow Hunter McAdams on Twitter.
