By: Mike Smith
The Highland cross country teams made the long trek to Albuquerque, New Mexico to close out their season competing in the NJCAA Division I Championships.
Highland men raced to a 25
th place team finish on the day out of 45 schools, while the women posted a 29
th place team finish out of 38 schools. For the men it's the fifth Top 25 finish in the last seven years and third in the last four, while the women's finish is the sixth highest in NJCAA DI.
The men posted their second fastest team average on the year posting a team average of 27:52, while running without top runner from Regionals,
Javon Watkins. Women ran to their fastest team average of the season with a team average of 22:23.
Pacing the way for the Scottie men was the performance of
Vicente Correia as he posted a time of 26:52.9 to place 92
nd out of 343 runners.
Deiondre Williams recorded the second best performance for Highland on the day posting a time of 27:57.63 to place 167
th, while
Ryan Ringer was just behind finishing 173
rd with a time of 28:03.36.
Joshua Camp and
Nick Cisneros finished out the Scotties five scoring performances as they placed 182
nd and 198
th, respectively with times of 28:10.62 and 28:19.46. For Nick was a personal best by 33 seconds.
Maxson Muenks and
Liam Jones each raced to times of 29:41.86 and 29:50.46 to finish 262
nd and 268
th.
The Highland women were led by
Evelin Santaclara as she posted a time of 21:15.30 finishing 111
th out of 290 runners.
De'Janay Davis and
Leah Wagner had the second and third best showings for the Highland women posting times of 21:35.77 and 22:28.38 placing 134
th and 176
th.
Tiana Bowen,
Octavia Wright and
Jennifer Lincoln were also in action for the Scotties finishing 208
th, 212
th and 239
th, respectively behind times of 23:17.80, 23:23.39 and 24:06.08.
A total of 90 schools were represented in both races leading the Scotties to compete in one of the largest cross country national meets.
"I was thrilled with our efforts of our young squad. We braved the conditions (high elevation and heat) and came out with what I'd considered great results. The future looks bright as 11 of our 13 runners competed will return next season, including all 7 men, and top 3 women finishers," said Head Cross Country Coach,
Chad Clevenger.
With the cross country season in the books the focus now turns to the track and field season which is set to commence for the Scotties with the Indoor season on January 11
th.
