Kats finish fourth, seventh at CUSA Championship
Oct. 30—BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — The Sam Houston men's cross country team turned in a fourth-place finish at the Conference USA championships on Saturday at Riverview Golf Course at Hobson Grove Park.
The women also turned in a seventh-place finish in the 9-team field.
But it was the Sam Houston men who highlighted the morning, picking up a pair of top-10 individual finishes from Christian Rivera and Gudisa Adnow.
Rivera completed the 8K course in 23:19 to finish eighth overall. Adnow was not far behind, finishing at 23:23 to come in 10th. Those performances anchored the Kats' team scoring as they finished with 88 total points for a fourth-place finish as a team.
UTEP had each of the first two individual finishers but ended the day third as a team. Middle Tennessee, meanwhile, bunched up their runners near the top with third, fourth, fifth and sixth-place finishes to ultimately take the league title with 37 total points. Liberty finished second with 53 points and UTEP totaled 64 to come in ahead of the Kats.
Mario Ruiz, Wyatt Lehmann and Edwin Rivera were the other three scorers for the Kats with Ruiz coming in 18th overall with a time of 24:10.7. Lehmann and Rivera finished neck-and-neck with Lehmann turning in a time of 25:02 for 28th place and Rivera finishing on his heels, less than a second behind at 25:02.9.
Other finishers for the Kats include Kyan Wallace in 33rd place (25:07.6), Yovany Portillo in 42nd place (25:46.1), Ace Garcia in 47th place (26:11.4) and Jacob Zimmerman in 57th place (26:52.9).
On the women's side, Ellie Galan's time of 24:04 was tops for the Kats, good enough for a 34th-place finish in the field. Nour Almasri's time of 24:29.3 for the 6K course finished her in 37th place, while Kristen Wilson finished third on the team and 41st overall with a time of 24:37.3.
Zerah Martinez (24:57.2) and Macie Ellis (25:23.8) rounded out the Sam Houston scoring, finishing in 47th and 52nd place, respectively.
Other SHSU finishers include Lauren Johansson (25:33.9) in 55th place, Kyndall Scogin (25:52.5) in 61st place and Naomi Green (27:02.6) in 68th place.
Middle Tennessee also claimed the women's title with 52 team points with Liberty and NM State tied for second with 61 points apiece to round out the top three.
The Kats will next look toward the NCAA Regional meet, scheduled for November 10 in Fayetteville, Ark.
