WARRENSBURG, Mo. (November 4) – Freshman runner David Chirchir placed fifth at the NCAA Division II South Central Regional meet in Warrensburg this morning. His finish qualifies him for the NCAA Division II National meet in Pensacola, Florida on November 18th.
"The race was run on a pretty slow course," head coach Matt Aguero said. "All the times were a little slow, but David ran just a great race." The race was hosted by the University of Central Missouri and was ten kilometers in length. A total of 113 runners competed in the event.
The Cameron cross country team finished at No. 15 out of the 17 schools in competition. In recent weeks the team was not able to run enough players to warrant a team score due to injuries. Their combined time was 3:11:51.30, which averaged out to 37:07.56 per runner.
Chirchir's fifth place finish was recorded at 31:26.20, just eight seconds behind the fourth place finisher, and twelve behind the winner. Chirchir averaged a speedy 5:06.8 per mile.
Nicodemus Naimadu of Abilene Christian won the event, adding to the record number of events he has won this season. ACU's team score also was good enough for first place.
Freshmen Ben Ware and Guy Narcomey were the only other Cameron Aggies to finish in the Top 100. Ware finished at No. 94 with a time of 38:08.30, while Narcomey finished at No. 99 with a time of 38:51.10. They averaged 6:08.3 and 6:15.2 per mile, respectively.
Sophomores Jon McMasters and Bira Vidal finished at No. 105 (40:36.20) and No. 109 (42:29.50), respectively.
Chirchir will be the lone Aggie competing in the national meet in two weeks against the best runners in the country. The remainder of Coach Aguero's squad will enter the offseason training portion of their schedule and await the spring meets.