SPC Men's Cross Country Wins Regional Title

EL PASO - The South Plains College men's cross country team won the NJCAA Region V championship Saturday in El Paso.

The SPC men finished first with 29 points, while El Paso Community College was second with 33.

South Plains sophomore John Kosgei continued his season of dominance by finishing first with a time of 24:47. He has finished either first or second at every race he has competed in this year. Also for SPC, Fred Samoei placed third (25:11), Javier Perez was fifth (27:01), T.K. Revis was ninth (27:58), Mike Hernandez was 11th (28:09), Jorge Castillo was 13th (28:26), Chris Salazar was 17th (29:40), Chris Jones was 19th (30:00) and Mike Rodriguez was 21st (30:15).

The SPC Lady Texans almost made it a clean sweep. They finished in second place with 28 points, just one point behind El Paso CC.

The Lady Texans did have the top two individual finishers. Lillian Badaru placed first with a time of 17:41, while Florence Jepchirchir was second (18:54). Also for SPC, Crystal Dickinson was sixth (19:53), Meagan Willingham was ninth (20:53), Melinda Burrola was 10th (21:15), Jessica Kirchner was 12th (22:29), and Megan Erickson was 13th (23:45).

Both the SPC men and women will compete at the NJCAA National Meet Nov. 10 at Rend Lake College in Illinois.