AMOR WINS AGAIN

Andrew Amor took the individual title and the HU men placed third as a team Saturday morning at the Lori Fitzgerald Invite hosted by New Mexico State University.

The HU women were led by Faith Lovato and Nieves Pacheco-- each in the top twenty-- as the Cowgirls placed fifth ahead of in-state rival Western New Mexico.

Amor's second victory of the year came against a strong field that included D1 squads from the University of New Mexico, UTEP and host NMSU as well as junior college powerhouse El Paso CC and Western New Mexico.
Amor took control of the lead pack with 1000 meters to go, pulling away from the top runners from EPCC, UTEP and UNM to win the 5k race in 14:41.

"Andrew raced smart, he let the pace drop most of the field and basically said 'stay with me if you can' over the last kilometer," noted HU head coach Bob DeVries.

The HU pack came up big at NMSU as well. Benard Kipruto (8th/15:20), Collins Kurui (15th/15:32), John Hall (17th/15:40) and Nathias Rael (21st/15:46) all ran under 16-minutes for the 3.1 mile race as the Cowboys fell just two points short of beating UNM.

Top 3 teams:

UTEP    39
UNM     60
NMHU  62 

Timothy Martinez (35/16:23), Michael Marshall (42/17:29), Gabe Gonzales (18:11), Edgar Hernandez (18:15), Sergio Ramos (19:54), Michael Montano (20:10) and Elvis Mmou (26:07) all Drew praise from the coach-- "We are seeing some hard racing all the way through the line-up. I'm very proud of our effort," said DeVries.

Lovato (17th/19:26)and Pacheco (19th/19:39)both set personal bests over the 5k layout on the NMSU Golf Course to pace the Cowgirls.

Racing without two of their top six runners, the HU women were still able to beat in-state rival Western New Mexico 127-135.

"We held out a couple of our women, but our ladies responded with the best team racing of the season," said DeVries.

Anabella Miller (27/20:22), Jewels Leslie (28/20:45) and Jackie Gamez (36/22:50) completed the scoring five. Gamez's performance was a PR and her first time in the Cowgirl top five. Abigail Serna ran 23:52 to place 37th.

The cross country squads will take a week off before hosting the HU XC Jam on Friday, Oct. 1 at the Gene Torres Golf Course. Racing begins at 2pm for the only home meet of the HU season.

Complete results available at:

https://nmstatesports.com/sports/cross-country/schedule