Texans place first, Lady Texans place second at Western Texas College Open on Saturday

SNYDER—The South Plains College men's cross country team picked up their second consecutive first-place finish on Saturday at the Western Texas College Open.

The Texans concluded the men's 8k with an average team time of 27:34, sweeping the top four spots and placing six runners inside the top 10. All-American Felix Kosgei placed first overall with a mark of 26:24, while Andrew Bosquez (27:25), Filmon Beyene (27:34) and Benjamin Rono (27:48) rounded out the top four positions.

"I thought we ran really well," South Plains head coach Erik Vance said. "The guys went out there and didn't quite get a perfect score but were pretty close and really competed well. Felix competed well and definitely showed he was the class of the field today.

"We can't compare this course to very many that we run on, but when we compare it to what we ran last year we ran significantly faster this year. I think across the board we ran much better than what we did last year, and it challenged us but I thought we did very well."

The Lady Texans used an average team time of 21:52.6 in the women's 5k and placed four runners inside the top five to earn a second-place finish. New Mexico Junior College placed first in the women's division with a final average team time of 21:52.2.

Seselia Dala led the Lady Texans with a time of 20:39 to place third overall. Leslie Romero and Poro Gahekave finished fourth and fifth for South Plains with their times of 20:49 and 21:05, respectively. Caitlyn Mercer earned a 10^th place finish with a time of 22:53, while Agnes Abrocquah placed 13^th with a mark of 23:57.

"I thought we did a great job of closing some of our gaps down between runners," Vance said. "They really went out and really team ran and kept those gaps a lot closer than the previous week. One person we saw really run well on the women's side was Caitlyn Mercer. She ran close to a minute better than what she ran on the same course last year, so that was really nice to see."

South Plains will be back on the course next weekend when they travel to Las Vegas, New Mexico for the New Mexico Highlands Open on Saturday, September 23.