Rangers put 8 in top 25 at Naimadu Classic
Ranger College head cross country coach Kathy Graham spends hours and hours preaching a "pack" mentality to her runners. Running as a group only makes a team stronger.
Graham had to be pleased in Ranger College's 2019 season opener at Abilene Christian University. Ranger had eight runners finish in the top 23 places and sailed to third in the 2019 Naimadu Classic standings. The Rangers, who had 13 runners compete in the race, finished with 57 points and finished just 23 behind NCAA Division I programs ACU and Texas Tech.
"I was pleased with the way we ran," said Graham, who has guided RC to the top 20 nationally in each of the last three seasons.
Jeremias Serrano Velez highlighted Ranger's individual efforts. He raced his way to fourth in the overall standings with a time of 19 minutes, 31.96 seconds. His time was just over 15 seconds off the winning mark posted by ACU's Kevin Kipgosgei.
Gilberto Palomo, Johnbosco Muiruri and Edward Njunguna also turned in outstanding efforts for RC. The three finished 11th, 13th and 14th, respectively, and gave Ranger four runners in the top 15. Palomo, a sophomore, checked in with a time of 19:53.29. Muiruri recorded a run of 20:01.10, while Njunguna crossed the finish line at 20:14.56.
Denzel Vilsaint narrowly missed a top 15 finish. He was 16th overall at 20:24.80.
Azael Reyes, Sakariye Ismail and Andrew Martinez rounded out RC's top-25 finishers. Reyes finished 20th, while Ismail and Martinez were 21st and 23rd, respectively.
Other RC runners completing the 6-kilometer trail included Luis Rios, Jalen Ledesma, Luis Pina, Osvaldo Gallegos and Francisco Rodriguez.