Ricardo breaks school record to lead team to 3rd place

Ricardo breaks school record to lead team to 3rd place

Battling sub 30 degree weather and high winds the men's cross country season finally came to a conclusion this past Saturday as the men ran the NJCAA Half Marathon Championships. The half marathon team was Ricardo Banuelos, Pedro Montoya, Ben Najman, and Jeremy Brittain placed 3rd overall with a team average of 1:10:33.80 which for only having American runners is very impressive.  

They were led by Ricardo who broke the school record by running a time of 1:09:42.42 finishing as the top American at 8th place while his teammate finished in 9th place with a time of 1:10:11.04 which also was lower than his previous school record. 

Even more impressive than Ricardo's time was the fact he came down with similar flu-like symptoms the morning of Friday while the team was traveling. "I believe it was something he ate the previous night at the restaurant we stopped at for dinner, but all I could do was just shake my head." "We took every precautions we could and he stopped having the symptoms, was able to hold down fluids and food and once again it was up to him and myself whether he would run Saturday."

They were followed by Ben Najman who finished 14th with time of 1:11:47.38 and Jeremy Brittain's 22nd place of 1:13:39.08

"I couldn't be more proud of the team, the conditions during the race were not ideal by any means. Having freezing temperatures and dealing with the wind element was enough to shut anybody down. But the runners pushed through and ran very well"

South Plains finished 1st with 14pts, while Gillette finished 2nd with 19. Allen's men placed 3rd with 31points beating Iowa Central by 3 points.