By Steve Holt, Sports Writer
A soggy course and the nation’s best competition didn’t deter the Wildcat cross country teams Saturday at the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree in Stillwater, Okla. Despite having to run through mud, the men’s and women’s teams finished second and fifth, respectively, against Division I powerhouses like Arkansas, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M and Rice.
Sophomore Nicodemus Naimadu finished fifth overall, covering the eight-kilometer course in 25 minutes, 12 seconds. Freshman Philip Birgen was 13th overall with a time of 25:51, followed by freshman Serge Gasore in 17th (26:00), senior Lucky Hadebe in 22nd (26:14) and senior Martin O’Kello in 49th (27:00).
Head coach Derek Hood said the race experience was worth the inclement weather conditions.
“It had rained all night, but shoot, it’s cross country,” he said. “We went there for the competition, so we got what we were looking for.”
The men’s team is ranked No. 2 in the national coaches’ poll behind Adams State (Colo.). The women’s team rose to No. 1 in the South Central Region from a No. 6 ranking a week ago after finishing fifth in Stillwater.
Sophomore Olha Kryv’yak was the top Wildcat finisher in the 5,000-meter race, placing ninth in 18:34. Senior Adeh Mwamba was 12th in 18:43, just ahead of teammate Trina Cox, who finished 14th in 18:49.
The story of the day on the women’s side for Hood, however, were the performances of his No. 4 and 5 runners, Abbie Waters and Mollye Stanford.
Waters placed 72nd in the large field of runners with a time of 21:17, followed by Stanford’s 88th-place effort in 21:45.
“That was the icing on the cake,” Hood said of the women’s performance. “If you had told me going into the meet that we would be fifth, I would have giggled about it. There were really two keys to it: our top three runners were within 15 seconds of each other, and our four and five runners competed great.”
The Wildcats will have the coming weekend off before returning to action Oct. 15 at the Arkansas Razorback Chili Pepper Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark.
