by Athletic Communications
Northwestern Oklahoma State’s Garrison Blanton, turned in the Rangers best finish in their NCAA Division II era at the Great American Conference Championship Saturday at the Ouachita Baptist Trails.
Blanton placed fourth at the water-logged 8K race in 25 minutes and 42.1 seconds to break his school record for the second consecutive race, this time by 10 seconds.
Blanton will compete at the NCAA Central Region Championship on November 9 at 9 a.m. in Joplin, Missouri.
Oklahoma Baptist University won the team competition by two points over Harding Universtiy, while Dylan Douglas of Harding took the individual crown. Northwestern topped Southern Nazarene University and Arkansas-Monticello Universtiy.
Blanton turns in his second straight GAC All-Conference honor, while still being the lone Ranger to have ever received the accolade. He placed 13th last season.
Noble Buckhaults finished at the 27:04.6 mark to place 27th.
Bauckhaults improves his mark in the record books moving into the fifth spot.
Kory Wilson clocked a time of 27:27.0 to end in 32nd place and placing 33rd with a time of 27:34.9 was Cody Schmidt, which moved into the top-10 all-time at 10th place.
Victor Cruz was Northwestern’s fifth scoring runner crossing with a time of 28:08.9 in 36th place, to move up to 14th in the record book.
Other Rangers racing were: Deven Marshall (28:19.2), Moises Ortega (29:02.9) and Caleb Pierce (30:13.7).
The NWOSU’s women’s cross country team also competed. They place ninth overall in the Great American Conference championship.
The team finished with a total time of 1:44:54 and a score of 223.
Camille Lear was the first Ranger to cross the finish line with a time of 20:45.4, earning her the 40th overall finish in the race.
Following Lear was Jasmin Garcia and Madison Meyer, who placed 41st and 42nd overall.
Garica finished with a time of 20:49.3 and Meyer clocked a time of 20:49.6.
Oklahoma Baptist took the team title, while Anna Mora of East Central was the individual winner.
Northwestern’s ninth place finish is exactly where they were selected in the preseason poll.
The Rangers bested Henderson State University, Southwestern Oklahoma State University and Arkansas-Monticello University.
Mariah Malloy would be the fourth member of the team to finish. Malloy placed 47th overall and finished with a time of 21:08.1.
Closing out the top five finishers for Northwestern was Jessalyn Rivet-Tissot. Rivet-Tissot ran for a time of 21:22.0, which earned her the 53rd overall finishing spot.
Also running for the Rangers was: Briley Yunker (21:59.1), Zoe Moorman (22:59.3), Yvonne Landeros (23:26.7), Crystal Castillo (23:29.8) and Jean Dodds (24:41.0)
This race closed out the season for Northwestern cross country.
The teams showed an improvement over the course of the season and the future appears to bright for the Rangers cross country moving forward.