OREM, Utah - In the Western Athletic Conference Cross Country Championships on Nov. 1, Southern Utah University's men's team earned second place and the women's team took third. Individually, Santiago Gaitan put on an impressive show, taking second place in the conference.
Coach Eric Houle said:
"It was a perfect day for both programs at these championships. The women put up a great fight to hold onto third. The men almost knocked off [California Baptist University,] the No. 14 team in the country, to get second. Overall, it was a very good day for the program."
Women's Recap
In their 6K race, the women finished third out of the nine conference teams with a score of 97, narrowly defeating Seattle U's 102 points.
Taking 13th place, Madisan DeBos raced a 20:55.8. The next runner though, Jordyn Bartolomucci finished 14th with a time of 21:07.8. Only fractions of a second apart, transfer Bella Evans and freshman Audrey Hales landed 20th and 22nd with times of 21:39.2 and 21:39.4 respectively. Josii Johnson's 22:05.4 put her in position for a 28th-place finish.
Men's Recap
The men's team finished second, right behind the nationally-ranked CBU team. They scored only 38 in the 8K race and upset a talented Utah Valley University team by 29 points. A total of four Thunderbirds breached the top ten, earning spots on the WAC All-Conference Team.
Santiago Gaitan ran an outstanding personal best time of 23:16.3 to take second place in the WAC. Also taking home all-conference honors, Jacob Peterson snatched seventh with a time of 23:38.4, Travis Feeny took eighth with a 23:46.0, and Hayden Harward finished ninth after a 23:48.7 race. To round out the score, Coleman Cragun's 23:54.5 landed him in 12th place.
Up Next
Southern Utah will travel to Nevada, Reno for the NCAA DI Cross Country 2024 Mountain Regional Championships on Friday, Nov. 15.
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