Story Created:
Sep 13, 2008 at 10:37 PM CST
Story Updated:
Sep 13, 2008 at 10:37 PM CST
The regionally-ranked No. 8 Cameron Aggie cross country team was unable to make it two consecutive meet victories today at the Tiger Chase hosted by East Central University. Cameron came in second place in the five-team meet, but had a great chance to take the title. If it weren’t for a few mishaps, CU would have won back-to-back meets for the first time in school history.
The eight-kilometer (five mile) meet took place at the
Pontotoc
Technology
Center
in
Ada, Oklahoma
, and was won by the host ECU Tigers. Although the Aggies took second place in the meet, Head Coach Matt Aguero was not satisfied with the way his team performed.
“We didn’t look very good today,” Coach Aguero said. “We looked pretty bad actually, and although we had a couple of people run well we had too many mishaps. We had a great chance to win but ended up falling behind too much.”
Freshman Mark Merritt was CU’s top finisher with a 5th place finish. His time in the meet was 26:47.0. Merritt was followed closely behind by senior Josh Stewart, who ran most of the race without either shoe. Stewart’s time of 26:56.0 was good enough for 8th place overall, although he led for most of the race. Just before the halfway point, Stewart lost both shoes and eventually the lead.
Another of Cameron’s top runners, sophomore Mohammed Khelalfa, did not finish the race after nearly passing out early on.
“Some of our runners did okay, and Mark Merritt ran a really good race,” Coach Aguero said. “Our two top guys had a pretty off day though.”
CU freshman Edwin Chelashaw and senior Mudasar Haidat finished in 10th place and 13th place, respectively. Chelashaw finished the race with a time of 27:06.0 while Haidat’s final time was 27:50.2.
Sophomore Garrett Hofmann took 33rd place with a time of 30:49.0, with senior Jamin Jones and junior Guy Narcomey finishing close behind in 35th and 36th place, respectively. Jones’ time was 31:26.0; Narcomey’s was 31:38.0.
Running unattached for the Aggies today were freshman Juan Ruiz and senior Casey Kreger. Ruiz finished in 18th place with a time of 28:36.0. Kreger finished in 20th place with a time of 28:43.0.
“We will take the next couple of weeks to get ready and train hard for our next meet,” Coach Aguero said. “It will be hard to forget today’s meet, so hopefully we can use it in our training as motivation to get better.”
The Cameron cross country team next takes part in the prestigious Oklahoma State University Cowboy Jamboree on October 4 in
Stillwater, Oklahoma
. The Aggies took 17th place out of 17 teams in last year’s OSU event.
