Solid performances for cross country at Jamboree

The Colby Community College men's cross country team placed third and the women fourth at the Oklahoma State Jamboree in Stillwater, Okla. on Sept. 30.

For head coach Cameron Rieth, the performance got mixed reviews.

"I think we showed that we are in the mix, but collectively, I don't believe that we ran up to our potential," he said. "OSU is a tough course, but we need to have everyone putting their best foot forward on race day. Some of us ran phenomenal, some of us didn't run what we are capable of doing. There can be good things that are learned from getting your teeth knocked in. We get to see what we are truly made of and we get to see how bad we want it."

The No. 15 ranked men were backed by another solid outing by sophomore Oscar Leyva, who finished fourth overall with a time of 26:02. Other Colby runners were all freshman. Emmanuel Kipngetich came in at 26:37, good for seventh place.  Mauro Arancibia (27:43), Roberto Silva (28:05), Caleb Carrassco (28:08), Tito Gonzalez (28:46), Austin Russell (28:52), Gibson Weydeveld (29:04) and Stephen Lott (31:06) also helped the Trojans finish ahead of twelfth-ranked Ranger College.  

Sophomore Winnie Kibet led the charge for the women's team with an impressive first place time of 18:19 and 30 seconds before the runner-up. With Kibet, the top seven Colby finishers—including sophomore Sharon Kimutai (19:58), freshman Aileen Gurrola (20:07), freshman Jessica Gamez-Ramos (20:24), sophomore Trizer Wangari (21:12), freshman Allison Hiatt (21:16), sophomore Jess Ixta (21:36)—averaged the overall second fastest time. Gaven Murphy (22:13), Emily Westeman (22:19), and Erika Alavardo (25:17) also aided in the fourth place finish.

"We have a few weeks to go until championship season. The potential is there, we just need put it together at the same time," Rieth added. "I believe in both of our teams."

The men and the women run again Oct. 7 at the Fort Hays State Tiger Invitational in Hays. Currently, the men are ranked 17^th in the USTFCCCA poll, and the women are No. 8.