By Eric Scott
Athletic Communications
In a follow-up to one of the biggest meets of the season for the Northwestern Oklahoma State University cross country teams, the Rangers and Lady Rangers each finished fourth at the Red River XC Shootout, hosted by Midwestern State.
In what turned out to be a notoriously slow course, Garrison Blanton was the top individual finisher for the men as he crossed the finish line in fourth place.
Blanton, a junior from Ponca City, Oklahoma, finished just 16-seconds behind All-American candidate James Majenge of Cameron.
Noble Buckhaults just missed a personal record as he finished the men›s 8K race in the 16th spot.
Tumiso Tidimane finished the race in 25th place, with Ben Ivory placing 30th and Cody Schmidt and Bryce Keoning finishing 34th and 36th, respectively.
Kayla Gourley paced the Lady Rangers for 25th place, followed by freshman Ladasheray Bell three runners behind Gourley.
Jessalyn finished just behind Bell in 30th, while Camille Lear and Claire Theis were close behind.
“The race today was telling of how our training has improved and how our team has learned that we move as a unit,” said head coach Jill Lancaster post-race. «Today we grasped that concept, were fresher and capitalized by beating some teams were having been able to beat before.»
Also competing in the meet were teams from the host Midwestern State, Oklahoma City, Science and Arts Oklahoma, Texas-Dallas and Cameron.
One of the strategic focuses for the Ranger coaches on Friday was running in packs.
Assistant coach Brock Hime echoed the Coach Lancaster in his post-race comments saying he›s really excited where the team is at in the process of the season.
“We held some of our front in end back today, then kind of let them go midway through the race. The look good and we competed well. We are just now about to come out of this valley of training and head toward the peak.
“I can’t wait to see what we do in five weeks.”
The Rangers and Lady Rangers will have Homecoming weekend off before returning to action on Oct. 13 at the Fort Hayes State Invite.