The EPCC’s Men and Women’s cross country teams had an impressive outing against NCAA Division I competition at the UTEP Lori Fitzgerald Invitational last Friday, each finsihing third.
The meet, which took place at the Santa Teresa Country Club, was made up of three Division-1 schools, UTEP, New Mexico State and the University of Houston. Monterrey Tech and EPCC rounded out the field.
Both the EPCC men and women placed an individual runner among the top 10 finishers.
Robert Menjo finished fifth for the men, and Gabriela Ramos and Paola Rodriguez finished seventh and 10th respectively for the women.
Menjo. EPCC’s only international scholarship student, is a native of Kenya and has been instrumental in helping the Tejanos achieve an 18th ranking in the National Junior College Athletic Association.
“I train by running for about an hour and a half at a moderate pace,” said Menjo.
Menjo, who won his first two races of the season, isn’t exactly alone here in the desert Southwest.
He trains and competes with his cousin, who is a member of the UTEP team.
Menjo’s fifth place finishing time was 23:57.
Other EPCC notables included Ramon Acosta (15th place), Vicente Gomez (18th), Andres Chavez (21st) and Marcos Munoz (23rd).
The men’s individual competition was paced by UTEP, which took the first three places, all within a second of each other.
Patrick Mutai won with a time of 23:20.1, followed by Japheth Ng’ojoy (23:20.4) and Stephen Samoei (23:20.9).
On the women’s side, the Tejanas were paced by Ramos’ time of 20:17 and the 20:36 put up by Rodriguez.
Though she was nervous before the race, Rodriguez, a Del Valle High
School graduate, was able to calm down just in time.
“I was scared because the girls I ran against used to beat me in high school,” said Rodriguez.
The freshman has finished in the top 10 in all three of her races this season.
Sandra Gueta finished in 21st place for EPCC, Crystal Chuca was 25th.
The UTEP men, ranked seventh in the nation, won the event with 16 points, followed by Houston (69), EPCC (90), NMSU (96) and Monterrey Tech (108).
The UTEP women were victorious as well, finishing with 23 points, followed by NMSU (51), EPCC (73) and Houston (99).
With both teams performing better than at least one Division-1 program at the Lori Fitzgerald Meet, the EPCC cross country teams will now get ready for the short trek to Las Cruces for the NMSU Kachina Classic on Sept. 22.
