ASHLAND, Neb. -- A perfect day for cross country greeted nearly 600 runners at the first Blazing Tiger NAIA Classic on Saturday morning at Mahoney State Park. Meet hosts Doane and College of St. Mary assembled a field of nationally ranked NAIA teams and brought them to Nebraska for the first time. The Bruin cross country team used the occasion for one final tune-up race prior to the NSAA championship in two weeks and came away with two personal bests.
The all-NAIA field featured six of the top women's squads and eight men's teams currently ranked in the top 25. The Bruin men placed 21st in the 23-team field while the Bruin women were unable to field a scoring team. The College of Idaho swept the team titles upsetting No. 1 ranked Taylor (Ind.) in the women's race while surpassing three higher-ranked men's teams to take that crown.
Individually for the Bruins, both Alicia Rivera Camargo and Olivia Russo cut a minute from their outing on the same course a week ago. Camargo was 141st in the 287 runner field running 25:22.3 while Russo was just off her season best as she finished 196th with a 26:31.7 clocking. The College of Idaho's Ellyse Tingelstad was the individual champion running 20:52.0 over the six-kilometer course.
The Bruin men were paced again by Richard Marcoux placing 70th of 284 finishers with a time of 26:12.4. The outstanding effort of the day was turned in by Collin Kotz who cut over thirty seconds from his season best, running 26:34.5 and finishing in the 90th spot. Next was Enoc Ortega who also recorded a season-best by twenty seconds as he crossed in 237th position in 29:33.7. Robbie Siford was 245th in 29:57.3 while Saba Khvichava, seeing his first action of the season rounded out the Bruin scorers in 258th place and a time of 30:35.5. University of St. Mary (Kansas) runner Emad Bashir-Mohammed turned in an incredible 24:07.0 time to take the overall win.
Head Coach Craig Christians: "A very cool event and my hat is off to Doane and CSM for putting this together. It was fun to see an all-NAIA field and one that was so talented. I thought it was a great final tune-up for the conference meet and we're going to line up at LaCrosse (NSAA site) with the goal of getting some individuals to Fort Vancouver (NAIA national site). Even on a less-than-great day for him, Richard had a solid race and I thought Collin's race was exceptional and I hope he knows that he can make the trip to nationals. Enoc had a great run to record a season-best, too, so it's good to see that we aren't satisfied with where we are now."
The NSAA Cross Country Championship will be hosted by Viterbo and will take place on Friday, Nov. 3 in West Salem, Wis. The top conference team and the top four individuals who are not members of that team will advance to the NAIA National Championship in Fort Vancouver, Wash. on Nov. 17.
