by Nick Dill, Student Reporter
The Northwestern men’s cross country team finished second in the Aggie Duels.
Garrison Blanton was the top finisher for the Rangers with a sixth-place finish. Blanton had a time of 27:27:00. He finished 1:48 seconds behind the individual winner of the race.
Four other Rangers, Kory Wilson, Noble Buckhaults, Boady Johnson and Moises Ortega placed in 11-14th place. Wilson had the best time out of the four running a 28:22:00.
“The men were running their first 8k, showing a lot of promise with our young team that was grounded out by returners,” said head coach Jill Lancaster.
“The men ran a very strong team race, I like the pack we had with our main group of men from our second to fifth finishers,” said assistant coach Craig Binkley.
The Northwestern women’s cross country team finished second at the Aggie Duels as well.
Jasmin Garcia ran the fastest time for the Rangers. Garcia finished third with a time of 20:15:10.
Northwestern beat rival school Southwestern by 33 total points. Camille Lear, Madison Meyer, Jessalyn Rivet- Tissot and Mariah Mallory earned a top 10 finish. Lear finished seventh place and ran a time of 21:12:00.
“This team showed today that we are going to be a much better team,” Lancaster said. “Today we showed that we are good at packing together. This team improved from last week on our time margin which is always a great feat!”
“We improved across the board,” Binkley said. “The women had a handful of people that improved from last week. That is always very encouraging going forward.”
The men’s and women’s cross country team will race again Sept. 27 at the NWOSU Invitational in Alva.