NASHVILLE - Junior Enock Langat finished 14th to lead the
Austin Peay State University men's cross country team to a fifth-place finish
in the Belmont-Vanderbilt Cross Country Opener, Friday, at Percy Warner Park.
The Govs finished in fifth place with 139 points. Middle
Tennessee won the event with 49 points, stunning two regionally ranked teams
which finished behind it. Tennessee, ranked No. 7 in the South Region, finished
second followed by No. 15 Lipscomb in third and fourth-place Vanderbilt and
then Austin Peay.
Langat finished the five-kilometer course in a time of
16:08.37 to lead the Govs efforts. The rest of the Govs squad finished among
the top half of the 89-person field. Sophomore transfer Geofrey Kosgei finished
24th (16:18.58) and was closely followed by junior Boniface Yator in 25th place
(16:20.86). Austin Peay's other three runners finished in a group - junior Evan Collins in 49th (17:20.32), freshman Tyler Kepley in 50th (17:20.99) and sophomore
Konnor Kessler in 51st (17:22.17).
"I was pleased with the effort we put out there today,
especially considering the amount of work we did this week," said Governors head
coach Doug Molnar. "These guys went out on Sunday and ran 19 miles, worked out
Monday and then ran 12 miles Tuesday, so today's performance is really
encouraging. And to see them run in the two groups was also a good sign for us,
we try to run in closely to keep our score down and they did a good job of that
today."
-AP-