RC men race to 8th at NJCAA national XC meet
The Ranger College men's cross-country team made history on Saturday. Big time history.
Backed by a fourth-place finish, the Rangers raced their way to eighth in the overall team standings at the 2020 NJCAA National Cross-Country Championships in Fort Dodge, Iowa. The finish was the highest-ever by an RC squad.
"They ran very well," said Ranger College head coach Kathy Graham. "We lost a large section of out No. 1 through No. 5 runners but we had people step up. I couldn't be prouder of them. It was cold and windy. We told them they needed to put their big boy pants on and just go do it. They did."
Ranger College had all seven of its runners finish in the top third of a field of more than 150 runners. They finished the meet with 246 points. Backed by a first- and second-place finish by its top two runners, Iowa Central Community College tallied 65 points and won the men's Division I title. Southern Idaho and Iowa Western took second and third, respectively.
Jeremias Serrano-Velez highlighted Ranger's outing. The sophomore sprinted his way through the 8-kilometer course with ease. He took fourth in the individual standings with a time of 25 minutes, 21.80 seconds. Iowa Central's Kelvin Burgei and Yonas Mogos were first and second, respectively, with times of 24:57.38 and 25:10.51.
Jacob Ozuna and Jalen Ledesma also turned in stellar outing for RC. Ozuna was 39th overall at 27:18.08, while Ledesma was 55th at 27:50.64.
Allen Price, Christian Parra, Andrew Nunez and Angel Torres also starred for RC. Price legged out a time of 28:18.47 and finished 71st. Parra checked in at 28:54.07 and placed 89th. Nunez and Torres were 97th and 98th, respectively, at 29:22.00 and 29:22.46.