SPC Cross Country Has Outstanding Opening Weekend

ABILENE – South Plains College's cross country teams brought home a pair of second-place team finishes at the ACU September Cross Country Classic Saturday at Sherrod Park in Abilene.

Despite practicing for just a week, SPC's women's team finished second with 29 points, just three points behind first-place Abilene Christian University. For the men, SPC was second with 35 points, while ACU was first with 23. ACU is the defending NCAA Division II National Champion.

"I was really proud of both our teams," South Plains head coach Chris Beene said. "I thought we competed really well. We've only been working out for a week, but I thought we ran smart and ran fast. We have a lot of newcomers, but I thought we ran like a sophomore group today."

In the women's 3-mile race, SPC's Lillian Badaru (Uganda) placed first overall with a time of 16:47.04. Also for SPC, Florence Jepchirchir (Kenya) placed sixth (18:41.00), Gladys Chumba (Kenya) was seventh (18:48.60), Meagan Willingham (Ballinger) was 11th (19:50.47), Crystal Dickinson (Laredo) was 12th (20:04.96), Melinda Burrola (Sundown) was 20th (20:55.08), Jessica Kirchner (Plano) was 22nd (21:39.09), Angelina Dickinson (Dallas) was 25th (22:01.93) and Megan Erickson (College Station) was 32nd (22:58.71).

In the men's 4-mile race, SPC's John Kosgei (Kenya) placed second with a time of 19:45.52. Also for SPC, Fred Samoei (Kenya) was third (19:32.65), Josphat Melly (Kenya) was eighth (21:31.99), Javier Perez (Cedar Park) was 12th (22:09.38), Jorge Castillo (Houston) was 14th (22:47.74), Michael Hernandez (Balmorhea) was 16th (22:53.45), T.K. Revis (Corpus Christi) was 23rd (23:53.76), Chris Martinez (Big Spring) was 25th (24:07.77), Chris Salazar (Big Spring) was 27th (24:20.11) and Mike Rodriguez (Big Spring) was 34th (25:15.93).

South Plains College's teams will be back in action on Sept. 14 when they compete at the Red Raider Jackrabbit Open on the campus of Texas Tech University.