The South Plains College cross country teams competed at the Region V NJCAA Championships at Harry McAdams Park in Hobbs, New Mexico, on Oct. 25, qualifying seven runners for the national meet.
The men’s team placed third overall with a score of 104 and an average time of 25:16 across runners, punching their ticket to the NJCAA national meet as a team.
Sophomore Dennis Cheruiyot and freshman Ylies Mihoubi led the way with top-10 finishes among 61 runners in the men’s 8K race, as Cheruiyot ran a 24:14.4 to place seventh and Mihoubi ran a 24:24.3 to finish ninth.
Other finishers included freshman Abdirisak Saidgurhan in 15th with a 24:44.8, freshman Grayson Hastings in 32nd with a 26:06.6, freshman Yassine Bounasri in 48th with a 26:56.7, freshman Donovan Martinez in 57th with a 29:04.8 and sophomore Stefan Camejo in 58th with a 30:48.1.
Cheruiyot, Mihoubi, Saidgurhan, Hastings, Bounasri and Martinez will be the team of six that competes at the national meet, which South Plains Cross Country Head Coach Wesley Miller is excited about.
“It’s phenomenal. We hadn’t sent a men’s team to nationals since 2017 or 2018, so it’s been a while. I feel like we’re in a good spot, we’ve got momentum. The men’s team has progressed really well this season,” Coach Miller said. “Out of seven guys, five are freshmen, so it was a big adjustment from the training standpoint racing the 8K instead of the 5K, but they’ve come a long way. Each week they’ve learned more in racing the paces they can handle and been able to compete more than stress about the distance. I’m super excited, we have goals to go in and get a top 10 national finish.”
The men’s team is in an exciting spot after an awesome performance at regionals, and while the women’s team wasn’t eligible to qualify as a team, sophomore Alison Guaman Tisalema earned an individual qualification for nationals by finishing 17th out of 62 runners in the women’s 5K race with a time of 19:18.9.
Guaman was the lone woman to qualify, but her teammates still had hardfought finishes, including freshman Jennifer Lozano in 33rd with a 21:07.7, sophomore Destinee Perez in 39th with a 21:48.7 and freshman Icela Swaby in 42nd with a 22:09.8.
As the non-qualifiers shift their focus towards a break and then preparation for the indoor track season, the qualifiers are all locked in on nationals and preparing with intentional practices.
“We had a couple downdays of training following the regional championships, getting their legs back under them,” Coach Miller said. “Now, it’s a lot of specific race and pace preparation, trying to get not just physically, but mentally ready for competing. Obviously, it’s a stiffer field at nationals so we want them in a good headspace, so some workouts are for confidence boosting and sharpening specific pieces.”
They’re all preparing to compete in the NJCAA National Cross Country Championships at the Lakeside Municipal Course in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on Nov. 8.
And then Cheruiyot will be the lone South Plains runner to compete in the NJCAA Half Marathon Championship in the same location on Nov. 11.
The coaches and athletes leave for the competition on Wednesday, hoping to return with some All-Americans and a good team finish.