Ranger women place 4th at LCU Invite
The Ranger College women's cross country team might not have finished atop the team standings at the 2020 Lubbock Christian University Invitational, but they had to consider their season-opener a success just because they actually got to compete.
The Lady Rangers, in their first meet of the season, raced their way to fourth in the final team standings of an event dominated by NCAA squads. The RC women had five runners finish in the top 25 spots in the 3.1-mile race, which was held on Sept. 25 in Lubbock.
"The women ran very well," said Ranger head coach Kathy Graham. "Our second, third, fourth and fifth runners battled it out with Lubbock Christian and beat them at the end."
As a team, Ranger finished the meet as the highest finishing small college squad, finishing with 85 points. West Texas A&M, led by the winning run of Florence Uwajeneza, won the meet with 35.
Uwajeneza covered the 5-kilometer course in a time of 18 minutes and 22 seconds. Her time was more than 1 minute faster than second-place finisher, Britney Lovato of Western New Mexico University.
Jessica Thomas-Billot made her return to the RC program a successful one. A national meet-qualifier two seasons ago, Thomas-Billot raced her way to seventh in the final standings. Her time in the race was 20:12.50.
Natali Mireles, Alexa Reyes, Kaylyn De La Rosa and Estella Dorantes also legged out top 25 finishes. Mireles finished 19th overall at 21:20.00, while Reyes was 21st at 21:28.00. De La Rosa placed 22nd at 21"30.50 while Dorantes was 24th at 21:34.20.
Aylin Huerta narrowly missed becoming the Lady Rangers' sixth top 25 finisher. She was 27th in the final standings with a mark of 21:47.40.
Other RC runners doing well in the race included Ana De La Cruz, who was 34th at 22:35.80, as well as Fae Gonzalez, who placed 43rd at 23:09.60, and Nevaeh Sarabia, who was 44th at 23"09.60.
Melohdee Marroquin and Alauna Stackhouse were 45th and 53rd, respectively.
Graham praised her team's efforts, saying the squad has an opportunity to be special.
"This team could be the best we have been since this program restarted," she said. "We have very good depth, talent and discipline."