Women win FHSU Open

Kibet first in individual

Sophomore Sharon Kimutai powered to a fifth place finish as the Lady Trojans won the FHSU Open at Sand Plum in Victoria on Oct. 7 (photo courtesy of Fort Hays State University) .

October 10, 2017

Running on a rain-soaked course Saturday the Colby Community College women's cross country team took first and the men second at the FHSU Tiger Open hosted at Sand Plum in Victoria.

"It was a great day to be a Trojan," said head coach Cameron Rieth. "With the conditions like they were, we knew times were not going to be the best. With some portions of the course being six inches under water, the course kept getting worse as more races were run on it."

The women, ranked No. 8 nationally, competed in the Black division. Led by a fifth place finish turned in by Sharon Kimutai (19:15), the Lady Trojans had an overall score of 79 points for the top 5 runners. Aileen Gurrola (20:00) finished 12^th and Jessica Gamez-Ramos was 15^th with a time of 20:04. MacKenzie Dill (20:12), Trizer Wangari (20:33),Jessenia Ixta (20:52), Gaven Murphy (21:16), Allison Hiatt (21:34), Emily Westeman (22:30), and Erika Alvarado (24:18) also helped Colby finish ahead of 13 other colleges.

All-American Winnie Kibet ran in the Gold division as an individual. She finished first with a time of 18:00 ahead of 165 other competitors.

"Our women ran tough," Rieth said. "They really responded to the challenge of running without Winnie today. They had a great pack time."

Both the men and women have a couple of weeks off from competition to get ready for the NJCAA Region VI Championship in Garden City on Oct. 30.