Serrano Velez leads RC to 12th at national XC meet
The Ranger College men's cross country team placed 12th at the 2019 NJCAA National Cross Country Championships, marking the second-best finish by an RC squad at the national championships since the program's restarted.
Ranger's 12th-place finish nearly equaled the team's best finish, an 11th-place mark two years ago.
"The team gave a great effort and performance to culminate their tough fall practices," said RC head coach Kathy Graham. "We are very pleased with the way things turned out for us."
A freshman from Killeen, Jeremias Serrano Velez penciled his name in as one of the nation's top NJCAA runners – and the best from Ranger College – with a sensational effort in a race ran on an 8-kilometer course at 5,000 feet above sea level in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He raced his way to 17th in the individual standings with a time of 25 minutes, 17.57 seconds. The mark was the fastest ever recorded by an RC runner at the national meet.
As a result of his top 20 finish. Serrano Velez was named to the NJCAA National Cross Country Coaches' Association's list of All-American honorees.
Sophomores Gilberto Palomo and Edward Njunguna also turned in strong performances for the Rangers. Palomo, a native of Alamo, TX, raced his way to 73rd in the standings with a time of 26:44.02. Njunguna, who hails from Richmond, TX, was 82d with a mark of 26:51.86. Sakariye Ismail, a freshman from East Grand Forks, Minn., also gave RC a top 100 finish. He turned in a time of 26"59.88 and placed 95th.
Azael Reyes, John Bosco Muiruri and Jalen Ledesma also did well for RC. Reyes, a freshman from Donna, TX, was 108th with a time of 27:15.61, while Muiruri was 126th at 27:40.04.
Muiruri is a freshman from Richmond, TX.
Ledesma, a freshman from Houston, was 191st at 28:54.27