Sept. 16, 2011

Men's Results

Women's Results

TUCSON - The University of Arizona Wildcat men's and women's cross country team competed at the Dave Murray Invitational in Tucson, on Friday. Arizona Wildcat freshman Lawi Lalang had a memorable cross country debut with a first-place finish and on the women's side, sophomore Elvin Kibet took first place with junior Jen Bergman finishing second.

The men's team finished first overall, with three finishing in the top six, five scorers in the top 16 and all nine finishers in the top 50. Arizona won with a total of 34 points, Arizona State finished second with 64 points and Northern Arizona took third place with 72 points.

The women's team also took first place, with nine runners finishing in the top 10, five scorers in the top six and all 14 finishers in the top 22. Arizona had 18 points in first, Northern Arizona had 45 points in second place and Central Arizona had 101 points to finish third.

"I think it went great," head coach James Li said. "We showed tremendous promise from our relatively young team, both men and women. Obviously the team winning is important, but we are also very happy with how they ran and how they competed."

Lalang, in his Arizona cross country debut, earned a first-place finish in the 4.25-mile race with a time of 20:06, winning by 54 seconds. Lalang beat teammate Stephen Sambu's time of 20:08 in last year's race.

"As far as I know this was Lawi Lalang's first real cross country meet," Coach Li said. "It was a very, very good performance. We are excited to see him in some real races in the coming weeks."

Sophomore Patrick Zacharias finished in third place for the Wildcats, clocking a time of 21:29. Freshman Kenji Bierig took sixth place with a time of 21:40. Sophomore Rory McLeod was 11th with his time of 22:08. Senior Abdi Hassan finished 18th, running the race in 22:24.

Also competing for the Arizona men were redshirt freshman transfer Sam Macaluso (26th; 22:38), freshman Thomas Valente (28th; 22:56), freshman Dylan Souza (32nd; 23:06), and sophomore Noe Ramirez (50th; 23:56).

On the women's side, Kibet won the three-mile race with a time of 16:22. Bergman's time of 16:29 was good for second place. Sophomore Amanda Russell finished in fourth place, running the race in 17:15. Junior Elizabeth Apgar clocked a time of 17:23, placing her in fifth. Freshman Haley Stenquist also had a time of 17:23, finishing in sixth place.

Also running for the UA women were sophomore Erin Menefee (7th; 17:27), freshman Stephanie Bulder (8th; 17:30), junior Hanna Henson (9th; 17:34), sophomore Melanie McGrath (10th; 17:48), freshman Nicci Corbin (12th; 17:54), freshman Hanna Peterson (15th; 18:09), freshman Katie Penney (16th, 18:190, freshman Daylee Burr (18th; 18:24) and junior Kat Howard (22nd; 18:30).

"Elvin Kibet and Jen Bergman really ran pretty relaxed," Coach Li said. "But they still ran more than 30 or 40 seconds faster than last year, that's amazing. It shows the kind of progress and improvements they have been making since last track season."