The EPCC men’s cross country team took on NCAA Division-1 foes New Mexico State and the University of New Mexico at the Kachina Classic last Saturday, and when the dust cleared, the Tejanos stood victorious.
The Tejanos won the 4.6-mile race, hosted by NMSU, with 51 points, the New Mexico Lobos finished second with 60 points, followed by Western New Mexico University (66), Dine College (71), NMSU (101) and University of Texas- Permian Basin (144).
Pacing the Tejanos’ impressive showing was Robert Menjo, who finished second individually with a time of 22:26. Also enjoying a good showing for EPCC was Ramon Acosta, who finished 10th with a time of 24:19.
Other EPCC finishers were Vicente Gomez (16th, 24:52), Andres Chavez (21st, 25:13), Luis Aguirre (27th 25:20), Marcos Munoz (28th 25:21) and Eduardo Caballero (38th 26:49).
Dine College’s Jacob Kirwa was the race’s individual champion with a time of 21:46.
This was the second straight win over a Division-1 opponent for the Tejanos, who finished better than NMSU at the UTEP Lori Fitzgerald Invitational a couple weeks ago.
On the women’s side of the ledger, the Tejanas also performed impressively in the 3.2-mile race, finishing second (46 points) to the event’s team champion, NMSU (18).
The Tejanas, who outran four other schools in the competition, also defeated a Division-1 school. New Mexico finished fourth with 110 points.
Gabriela Ramos paced the women with a fourth-place finished at 19:01 and was followed by Sandra Gueta, who finished 6th individually with a time of 19:19. Paola Rodriguez also wound up in the top 10, finishing 9th with a time of 19:39.
Other EPCC runners were Melissa Zepeda (15th, 20:06), Crystal Chuca (17th, 20:10), Ana Navar (24th, 21:44) and Ambrosia Coltrane (33rd, 22:56).
NMSU’s Brandi Gutierrez took individual honors with a time of 18:54.
Going into action this week, the EPCC men were ranked 13th in the nation while the women were ranked 10th by the NJCAA.
EPCC will be back in action Saturday, Oct. 6 as they travel to Odessa to compete at the University of Texas of the Permian Basin Invitational.
