COMMERCE, Texas (October 20) – With the season coming down the final stretch, the Cameron Aggie cross country team today matched up with the eight other Lone Star Conference squads at the LSC Championship meet. The Aggies finished the event in 6th place just a year removed from taking 7th place. Their total team time was 2:19:19.39 with an average individual time of 27:51.88. The race distance was eight kilometers.
“I am definitely pleased with our performance,” Head Coach Matt Aguero said. “I don’t think we could have done much better because everybody ran about where I thought they would.”
Abilene Christian University won the men’s championship for the 17th consecutive year with a total team time of 2:06:08.68. Their average individual time was 25:13.74. ACU’s Serge Gasore won the individual title with a time of 24:47.79.
“Really I think ACU is way ahead of everyone else, but the entire conference is getting much better,” Coach Aguero said. “Any of the teams between 2nd to 7th place could have come in 2nd. On any day we could knock off those teams, but we ran a real good race. We are still a young team but it’s great to continually get better.”
Cameron’s top finisher for the third straight race was junior Mudasar Haidat. He came in 6th place overall with a time of 25:50.09. His finish garnered him All-Conference honors, which go to the top ten finishers.
“We had a pretty good showing by Mudasar at 6th overall,” Coach Aguero said. “As a team we did better than last year and I think we will do even better next year. I think the regional meet looks good, and Mudasar’s run today showed that he has a shot at qualifying (for nationals) as an individual.”
The remaining Cameron runners finished as follows:
24th place – Jamin Jones – 27:38.08
30th place – Casey Kreger – 28:07.28
37th place – Juan Ruiz – 28:38.78
44th place – Aaron Hibbits – 29:05.15
46th place – Garrett Hofmann – 29:23.66
52nd place – Mustansar Haidat – 30:02.76
57th place – Guy Narcomey – 31:10.99
62nd place – Mubashar Haidat – 31:43.39
65th place – Brian Amyx – 32:27.80
A total of sixty-seven runners competed in the event. The Aggies finished just three minutes behind third-place Tarleton State.
The remainder of the top ten runners finished as follows:
2nd place – Julius Nyango – Abilene Christian – 24:47.82
3rd place – Amos Sang – Abilene Christian – 24:50.04
4th place – Phillip Birgen – Abilene Christian – 24:58.65
5th place – Rey Hinojosa – Tarleton State – 25:41.36
6th place – MUDASAR HAIDAT – CAMERON – 25:50.09
7th place – Nimrod Lelei – Eastern New Mexico – 25:56.42
8th place – Matt Appelman – East Central – 26:03.85
9th place – Tyler Tyndell – Texas A&M-Commerce – 26:13.09
10th place – David Solis – Angelo State – 26:29.73
“This week is going to be a pretty hard week, but then we will start backing off a bit and work on our speed and staying fresh,” Coach Aguero said. “We have been training for Regionals in each of the last few meets so hopefully we will run our best times.”
The NCAA Division II South Central Regional Championship takes place on Saturday, November 3, in Joplin, Missouri. The National meet will be two weeks after that, also in Joplin.