HU's
John Hall won his second consecutive race and the Cowboys swept the top four spots on their way to a commanding 20-35 win over in-state rival Eastern New Mexico on the Greyhounds home course Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, the HU women, led by
Faith Lovato's winning performance, exacted a one-point victory over the host Greyhounds. The ENMU women had bested the Cowgirls at the HU XC Jam three weeks ago.
"We came here with a purpose," said HU coach
Bob DeVries, "We wanted to win both races and get revenge for losing at home on the women's side."
Hall took over the race early on his way to a 26:24 clocking for the 8k distance and his second win of the season. The junior from Pojoaque High School also won at the HU home meet.
For Lovato, Saturday's win was a college first and also marked the first sub-23 6k of her career (22:57).
"To be honest, the races were long. Our runners all wear GPS watches and have apps that track distance and both courses were over 200 meters long."
noted DeVries, "but cross country is about racing, not times, everyone races the same course."
Mart Nijhuis and
Celso Garcia raced in tandem- trading pacing duties throughout the race-Â finishing together in 27:32 to take second and third.
Edgar Hernandez (29:45) continued his improved racing to grab fourth -- beating thre Greyhounds top finisher by more than 45 seconds.Â
For the women,
Jewels Leslie placed third,
Faith Jebet fifth and Abi Serna was eighth. But it was fifth runner
Kailyn Wilson who earned high praise from the coach and teammates, "Kailyn needed to beat one girl to keep us ahead of Eastern and it was a dead sprint between them at the end. The girl passed Kailyn and it seemed over, but Kailyn found another gear in the last fifty meters to secure the team win," said teammate Abi Serna.
Both the men's and women's squads will take a break from racing in preparation for the RMAC Championships on Nov. 5 in Durango, CO.
Complete results at:Â www.tfrrs.org
