Cross Country competes in Pre-National Invite

This weekend, both the men’s and women’s cross country teams traveled to Terre Haute, Indiana, to compete in the Adidas Pre-Nationals Invite. The invite was hosted at the LaVerne Gibson Cross Country Course, which will be the same location as Nationals. 63 teams entered the men’s side of the competition, while 70 teams competed on the women’s side of the race.

The Rocket women’s team entered the competition with enough momentum from a good finish in the Greater Louisville classic, which had taken place two weeks earlier. The women recorded a fifth place finish in this tournament, with first-year Athena Welsh leading the squad with a 27th place finish.

The Rockets paced themselves into a 34th place finish in the Pre-National Blue 6K. Third-year Maja Pacaric led the team with a 123rd place finish and ran the race with a time of 21:39.3. Joan Jepkirui, third-year, was close behind and finished the race with a time of 21:46.8. Other notable finishes for the Rockets were third-year Caroline Lambert, who finished the race 156th with a time of 21:52.6, and Welsh finishing in 183rd place. Colorado took home the overall victory and Erin Finn of the University of Michigan finished first with a time of 19:44.7.

The men’s team had similar confidence heading into this invite after also finishing strong at Louisville in 10th place. Third-year Alberto Chelimo led the men at Louisville with a career-best 8K time of 25:01.78. Fellow third-years Titus Koech and Stalline Kurgat also finished strong at the tournament and expected similar results at the Pre-National Invite.

Toledo was led by first-year Dismas Koech and Titus Koech to a 14th place finish in the Pre-National White 8K. Dismas Koech finished the course in 25:46.8, claiming a 35th place finish, while Titus Koech finished with a time of 25:53.6 and a 42nd place finish. Third-year Stalline Kurgat finished third for the Rockets with a time of 26:20.3 and a placing of 70th. Chelimo rounded out the scoring for the Rockets with second-year Louis Guardiola, who finished 87th and 91st, respectively.

The teams will finish their regular season schedule at the Eastern Michigan Fall Classic on Friday, Oct. 21.