Image
OC Athletics
Eagle

Strong finishes at OBU Invitational

  SHAWNEE, Okla. (Oct. 10, 2009) – The Oklahoma Christian cross country teams came away with strong team finishes at the Oklahoma Baptist Invitational on Saturday. The women’s team finished second overall with the men claiming a fourth-place finish.

Eight teams and 65 runners competed in the women’s race. The Oklahoma Christian women found themselves in a tight pack bringing away two top ten finishes. Irene Masai was the first Lady Eagle to cross the finish grabbing a sixth-place finish with a 20:04.15 effort.

The second runner for the Lady Eagles was Rachel Snider, also placing in the top ten, who finished directly behind Masai in 20:04.99. Not far behind Snider, Melyssa Cardenas ran to a 13-place finish covering the five-kilometer distance in 20:21. Steps behind Cardenas, Kaili Tucker took 14th with a 20:24.

To round out the Lady Eagles’ top five, Lena Baskin drove in a 20:44 to place 21st overall. Finishing out the Lady Eagles’ seven runners were Cady Block (22:27) in 41st and Kaci Shough (25:06) in 57th place. “Rachel really stepped up and took charge in the second mile, and Irene Masai had a great closing kick. Lena Baskin had another excellent race, and is quickly becoming an important scorer on the [women’s] team,” said head coach Mark Thompson.

“The women’s team is running with a full head of steam, and I was very pleased with their competitiveness at OBU,” Thompson said. “They are realizing their potential and are responding well in workouts and races. They ran without their team leader this weekend and it didn’t phase their intensity at all.”

For the men’s competition, 64 runners participated with six teams represented in the field. Leading the Eagles was David McWilliams taking fifth place overall in a time of 26:05. The second finisher for the Eagles was Brayden Barrientez who place 15th with a 26:39 effort.

Next for the Eagles was Andy Schmidt who covered the eight-kilometer distance in 27:00 placing 18th. Following Schmidt was Joseph Zarazua who claimed 21st place after running a 27:10. Finishing out the Eagles’ top five was Angel Sanchez who clocked a 27:21 to earn a 25th-place finish.

To carry out the Eagles’ top seven runners were back-to-back finishes by Britt Barrientez (27:36) in 31st and Robert Macom (27:37) in 32nd.

“David ran a great race and has been a rock solid addition to the team with his consistency. We saw other improvements in Andy, Joseph and Angel as well, but overall [the men] did not run well as a team,” said Thompson. “Our next two races will be very important to reestablish our confidence as a team.”

The Lady Eagles ran without their number one runner, Nicole Lair, while the men’s team raced without their number one and two runners, Silas Kisorio and Geoffrey Njonjo, respectively. Lair, Kisorio, and Njonjo will all race at the Chile Pepper hosted by the University of Arkansas on Oct. 17 in Fayetteville, Ark.

-OC-