BROOKINGS, S.D. -- Paced by Lorena Ramirez and Chris Casart, the Bellevue University men and women competed on Saturday at the North Star Athletic Association Indoor Track and Field Championships held at the Sanford-Jackrabbit Athletic Compex on South Dakota State University campus in Brookings, S.D. The event marked the end of the Indoor season for the Bruins.
The first event of the day was also the highlight of the meet for the Bruins as Lorena Ramirez captured her third consecutive all-conference award (2019 Outdoor 5K, 2019 Cross Country and now 2020 Indoor 5K). Ramirez finished third in 19:19.27, shaving a whopping 40 seconds off her personal best from her outdoor PR from last Spring.
Chris Casart followed that with a fifth-place finish in the men's 5K, running 16:57.22, an indoor personal best in only his second race of the indoor season. That concluded the Bruin scoring on the day.
Ramirez came back to place seventh in the women's 3,000-meter run. Edrei Murillo had finishes of 8th and 10th respectively in the 5,000 meters and mile. Cole Wagner was BU's lone entrant in the 3,000 meters and finished 11th.
For the women, Alisiara Hobbs finished ninth with Dayana Montano-Salama 11th and sister Diana 13th in the mile. Dayana and Diana came back to finish 13th and 14th in the 3,000.
"We knew going in that we were not going to score a lot of points with our handful of distance runners competing against full track and field squads," said head coach Craig Christians. "Unfortunately, we were missing some of our athletes due to injury or illness. Overall, I believe we accomplished what we set out to do in this, our first indoor season, by getting some racing experience under our belts which can only help our performances in outdoor track and cross country down the road."
The Bruins will begin the outdoor season on March 28 when they travel to Wayne, Neb. to compete in the Wayne State Wildcat Classic.
