The Wildcats started their season strong, with both the men’s and women’s teams finishing the ACU Naimadu Classic with a third place overall finish.
“We were just thankful to get out here, have a home meet and have a good turnout,” head coach Jarvis Jelen said. “It was a lot of fun. We really appreciate everyone coming out and having fun with us.”
Finishing third place at ACU’s only home meet of the season was no easy task based on the competition competing at the annual meet. Some of the teams present included Div. I rivals like Texas Tech, TCU and Tarleton, Div. II powerhouses like West Texas A&M and other teams from across the Big Country.
Jelen later said both teams were solid overall despite having younger teams, but wants to see both teams continue to improve in the future.
“We have mostly freshman on the women’s side, so I was really proud of how they came out and competed with having no college experience,” Jelen said. “The men’s side was decent, we had some guys do some good things up front. We have a lot of work to do on the race side, we’re fit, but we need to put it together in races.”
The women’s 4k run was tight, with the top three teams, TCU, West Texas A&M and ACU, finishing with a total time within a minute of each other.
The Wildcats podium appearance was spearheaded by junior Irene Rono’s dominant first place performance, finishing with a total time of 13:41.9 and nine seconds before any other runner, She credited her dominate performance to her familiarity with the venue and competition that elevated her to the top.
“I felt like today was a really good race for me,” Rono said. “I’m familiar with the course, and we had a good group of people in the top six. That pushed me and I was able to push forward toward the end.”
Another strong finisher for the women in her first meet the women was freshman Peyton Bornstein. Her final time of 14:53.6 gave her a 12th place finish in her first ever collegiate race.
As for the men’s team, their third place position just behind West Texas A&M and Texas Tech for the 6k run caused them to finish ahead of Div. I competition like TCU and Tarleton.
Leading the charge for the men was senior Levi Chambers, who finished in sixth place overall with 18:44.1 being his final time. After his race, Chambers said that this meet helped train his team to push to the front of the pack in all races despite the level of competition.
“We just need to get better at big racing against big competition,” Chambers said. “Not being comfortable in the back, but being in the race. Races like today kind of helps us with what.”
Now, the Wildcats have a week off to prepare for the next meet and to prepare for the quickly approaching conference meets. Jelen said the team is in a good spot after this first race, but has plenty of time to learn and get better for their next meet.
“It’s the first race, and we have a lot of time left to keep getting better,” Jelen said. “I think that we have a lot that we can learn from today and we can take it to the next race in two weeks.”
Up next, the Wildcats hope to improve upon their third place finishes as they head to Nacogdoches on Sept. 17 to compete in the SFA Lumberjack Collegiate Invitational.
