AUGUSTA,
Kan. - Wichita
State University's Men and Women Cross Country Teams took home first place in
the 64th Annual J.K. Gold Cassic, Saturday at the RAFT Golf Course. Senior
Aliphine Tuliamuk repeated as the women's 4K Champion breaking the meet record
by more than two seconds. Senior Marcos Bailon paced the men's team by taking second
in the men's 6K race.
Tuliamuk,
ran away from the women's field of 126 participants with a winning time of 13:27.75.
She finished more than 14 seconds ahead of second-place finisher, Laura Galvan
(13:42.52), from Kansas State. Former Shocker, Tonya Nero, who broke the course
record in 2010 as a senior, finished with a time of 13:51.69.
"I
was really impressed with the way that Aliphine ran," said head cross country coach, Kirk Hunter. "To break Tonya's record in this heat is really something
special."
The
WSU women's team also had six more top-10 finishers in the 4K race. Sophomore,
Kaitlyn McLeod finished in fourth place with a time of 14:18.79. Freshman,
Emilea Finley placed sixth (14:49.48). Junior Elida Bailon was seventh
(14:51.38), with junior, Samantha Shukla eighth (14:55.57), junior, Laura Burke
ninth (15.03.83), and freshman, Emily Hornbeck 10th (15:09.96).
"The
women's team was incredible today. Everybody finished strong and really fought
hard throughout the race and that's why we brought home the team title," said
Hunter
On
the men's side, senior, Marcos Bailon finished with a second place time of
18:42.42. Senior, Jake Wike followed
Bailon and took third (18:47.40), sophomore, Sterling Spencer finished fourth
(18:50.09), and senior, Tomas Cotter placed 10th for the Shockers
with a time of (19.06.26).
Kansas
State University runner Fernando Roman won the university/men 6K race with a
time of 18:37.09.
"The
men's team ran very strong today. We had five guys that ran faster than our
fastest runner last year and to have that many runners finish like that is
incredible," Hunter said. "I am very pleased with the way our men started the
season."
More
than 490 university, college and high school runners participated in the J.K.
Gold Classic's six races Saturday. Results for each race are available below.
The
Shockers next compete Sat., Sept. 15 at the Missouri State Invite in
Springfield, Mo.
