Denver, Colorado - The New Mexico Highlands Cross Country teams were in Denver on Saturday morning for the Roadrunners Invitational hosted by MSU-Denver at Washington Park. And as with the performance two weeks ago, the day was highlighted by good individual performances and the continued growth of young teams.
Washington Park is the location for the 2024 NCAA Division II South Central Regional Championships making the field particularly deep for both races on Saturday morning.
Freshman
Weldon Chebon made his collegiate debut on Saturday and posted an impressive 24:24.12 over the 8k course which was good for a fifth place finish in a strong men's field.
"Weldon looks ready to take on the challenge of the RMAC. He stayed in the lead pack throughout and broke up the #3 ranked Mines top three runners," said Head Coach
Bob DeVries. "I need to get Weldon some grass racing shoes -- I didn't realize he was in racing flats and he had some trouble getting traction in the wet grass."
Freshman
James Kurui had another strong outing this week as he finished in 25:41.18.
"James was solid once again. He and Weldon give us a strong 1-2 punch up front," DeVries said.
Lawrence Ragland,
Edgar Hernandez, and
Tim Martinez rounded out the competitors for the Cowboys on Saturday.
From DeVries, "Lawrence and Eddie both cut nearly a minute off their time from the last race, so that's encouraging, but we need to keep bringing it down. Tim was over two minutes better on Saturday. Tim was one of the top high school runners in New Mexico back in 2021 and he's on the comeback trail after nearly two years away from running."
For the Cowgirls,
Summer Abeyta was the top finisher again this week as she finished the 6k course in 23:41.95.
Jewels Leslie posted a 25:19.52 and
Cemore Donald completed the course in 26:11.08.
Josey French,
Emma Hurren, and
Abigail Serna rounded out the competitors for the Cowgirls on Saturday.
On the women's performance today, DeVries observed, "Summer was our number one again. She isn't racing like a freshman, she got herself in the mix and kept moving up throughout the race. Jewels actually bettered her time from last October at the RMAC championship on the same course which is very encouraging. And
Cemore Donald ran the first 6k of her career and was our number three finisher for the team. Impressive for the defending indoor 400-meter sprint champ."
Up next is the HU XC Jam this coming Friday afternoon at the Gene Torres Golf Course in Las Vegas.
