NMHU 18th At National Championships; Amor Earns All-American Honors

Joplin, Missouri - The New Mexico Highlands men's cross country team finished 18th at the NCAA Division II Championships today at the Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course at Missouri Southern State University.

"Being able to say they finished in the top 18 in the country is pretty special for these men," said Head Coach Bob DeVries after the race. "They weren't ranked in the top 30 and one site predicted they would finish 29th, I hope everyone understands how tough it is to get to nationals and to race well against the best in the country."

On senior John Hall's effort Saturday, DeVries commented,  "John had an outstanding day, running the best race of his career in his final outing. He beat so many guys who had finished in front of him at regionals, including all three of the individual qualifiers."

The Cowboys were one of eight teams from the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference to compete in this year's Championships. NMHU edged out UCCS by a single point to capture the 18th place finish in the field of 34 teams.

Individually, senior Andrew Amor finished the 10k course in 29:18.0 to finish fifth and earn All-American honors for the third consecutive year. In 2022 he placed 20th and in 2021 he placed 30th. Earlier this season, Amor captured RMAC Runner of the Year by winning the conference championship in Denver.

"Great race by Andy today - the highest finish ever by an HU runner at the NCAA championship - in the deepest, fastest, race in history of Division II. He put himself on the Mt. Rushmore of HU cross country today," Said DeVries.  "This race was ridiculously fast at the start. Andy ran the fastest first kilometer of a race in his career and was in 35th place. It took him 3k to get up into the lead pack, but he didn't panic, he used his experience and confidence, kept his composure, and got himself into a position for a top five finish."

NMHU Results:
    5        Andrew Amor          SR    29:18.0
  68       John Hall                 SR    30:53.8
138       Mart Nijhuis             SR    31:48.3
156       Celso Garcia           SO    31:57.8
169       Nathias Rael           SO    32:08.0
(232)     Edgar Hernandez   JR     34:27.3
(236)     Christian Corona    JR     40:45.6

Complete results from the NCAA Division II Men's Championship can be found here.