ABILENE, Texas - After a three week hiatus in competition, the Concordia Texas cross country dazzled at the American Southwest Conference Championship meet. Junior
Kamron Loera (25:01.2) crushed the field by 38 seconds and set a new ASC Championship meet record to claim the crown. He is now the first ever men's individual champion in program history.
Fellow junior
Thomas Hughes (26:22.0 / sixth-place) cracked the top-10 and also earned First Team All-ASC honors at the meet. This marked the first time ever that the men's team had two runners make First Team All-Conference. The men's team earned a bronze finish, while the women's team placed eighth overall.
In the men's 8k, the the third place finish marks the best place for the Tornados since 2014 (second-place). Freshman
Matthew Kangas (26:54.3) capped off his impressive semester by just missing the All-Conferece mark (top 14 finishers, 1-7=first team, 8-14=second team) with a 16th-place finish.
Samuel Valdez (27:21.8 / 24th) and
Dion Arriaga (27:35.3 / 27th) also finished in the top 30, while
Aaron Ramos (28:20.2) and
Alexandro Barrera (28:28.6) crossed back-to-back in 40th and 41st-place to cap off the scoring for CTX. Freshman
Edward Wensley clocked in at 33:22.4 in his conference meet debut.
In the women's 8k, rookie
Ashley Rivera (36th place) led the charge for the Tornados at 26:42.9.
Belkin Vega-Molina clocked in at 28:25.9 for 48th place, while
Mackenzie Dixon placed 51st with a time of 29:14.8.
In her second collegiate race ever,
Emily Schmuck (29:53.3) earned 44 points by placing 53rd for CTX. Rounding out the scoring for Concordia was
Lluvia Rodriguez (32:27.6 / 58th) and
Mattison Stayrook (35:03.3 / 62nd).
Click
here to view the full results.
Loera and Hughes have now qualified for the NCAA Regionals. They will now prep for the race that will take place in Riverside, California on November 11th.
To keep up to date with everything surrounding the CTX cross country program, follow us on social media (@ctxathletics) and visit athletics.concordia.edu.
