Cross Country | 10/22/2016 12:30:00 PM
SPEARFISH, S.D. – Western State Colorado University men and women's cross country teams finished fourth and second, respectfully, at the 2016 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Championships this morning in Spearfish, S.D. The women featured two All-RMAC finishes and three top-20 finishes.
Georgia Porter finished as the runner-up for the Mountaineers for the second season in a row. Her time of 22:28.36 was 22 seconds away from the champion, Jenna Thurman of Adams State. Right behind her was
Alicja Konieczek with a time of 22:39.01 in third.
The final top-20 Mountaineer for the event came from
Sophie Seward, who ran 23:21 to finish 17
th.
Glindyll Mancia and
Chloe Andrie finished 27
th and 28
th, respectfully, to close out the top-five for Western. The women combined for 77 points, as Adams took the title with 33 points. CSU-Pueblo was third with 95 points.
The men scored 134 points to finish fourth overall. Defending National Champions Colorado Mines scored the second-best possible score in cross country, taking the title with 20 points. Adams State finished second with 44 points and CSU-Pueblo finished third with 97.
Individually, the men placed three runners in the top-30, and all five scored in the top-35 positions.
Preston Cates led the way for the men, running 26:12 to finish 20
th. Behind him in 21
st was
John Patterson with a time of 26:13.
Kyle Lewis finished 29
th with a time of 26:41, with
Dawid Konieczek on his heels for the 30
th place time of 26:41, just a tenth of a second behind Lewis.
Bryant Byrd closed out the running, placing 34
th with a time of 26:54.
The Mountaineers will look to regather for the NCAA South Central Championships in two weeks in Denver. The men will need to finish in the top-six to return to the National Championships, while the women will need a fourth place finish or better.
