Published: November 11, 2008 09:22 am      

ECU cross country teams done

Live Oak, Texas — The East Central University men’s and women’s cross country teams saw their seasons come to an end Saturday while competing in the NCAA Division II South Central Regional, hosted by Incarnate Word University.

The ECU men’s squad finished 10th while the women ended up 13th as no runners qualified for nationals this time around.

In the men’s race, sophomore Jimmy Sutrick led ECU by placing 31st and clocking in at 32:46.2. Sophomore teammate Daniel Kiptoo finished 47th in 33:21.7 and Stefan Terrell, yet another sophomore, was 49th in 33:23.8.

Also for the Tigers, seniors Jacob Bussell (33:28.5) and John Sutick (33:54.6) closed out their careers with 54th and 68th place finishes, respectively. Freshman Alejandro Garcia was 73rd in 34:02.7 and junior Tyler Jackson settled for 112th in 35:44.3.

Abilene Christian, which had the top four individual runners in the race, captured the team title with a score of 31. Julius Nyango, of ACU, set the pace with a time of 30:10.7, edging out teammate Daniel Maina, who clocked in at 30:11.1 for second place.

Missouri Southern finished second in the team standings with a 105, followed by Pittsburg State (149), Southwest Baptist (151), Texas A&M-Commerce (154), Tarleton State (165), Fort Hays State (183), Emporia State (209), Central Missouri State (241), ECU (249), Truman State (259), Northwest Missouri (262), Incarnate Word (341), Angelo State (384), Cameron (392), St. Edward’s (464), Eastern New Mexico (473), Dallas Baptist (481), West Texas A&M (505), Newman (520), Texas A&M-International (627) and Texas-Permian Basin (670).

In the women’s race, junior Sarah Reihart was the Lady Tigers’ top runner at 23:53.1 for 55th place. She was followed by two of her junior teammates – Silvia Barkechir, who was 57th in 23:54.7 and Alex Kirkpatrick, who ended up 67th in 24:17.5.

Also for the Lady Tigers, sophomore Carina Clemente was 78th in 24:39.0; freshman Nancy Sandoval took 80th in 24:50.05 and freshman Jessica Nguyen was 113th in 26:49.0.

Abilene Christian’s Winrose Karunde took top honors with a time of 20:45.6, edging out Missouri Southern’s Kimi Shank, who clocked in at 20:55.3 for second place.

Missouri Southern captured the team title with a score of 88, followed by Midwestern State (94), Pittsburg State (105), Dallas Baptist (111), Truman State (160), Southwest Baptist (173), Fort Hays State (225), West Texas A&M (256), Abilene Christian (278) and Central Missouri State (283).

Finishing 11th was Newman (318), followed by Central Oklahoma (320), ECU (326), Northwest Missouri (329), Emporia State (341), Angelo State (362), Incarnate Word (364), Texas A&M-International (474) and Texas-Permian Basin (494).