Nunes leads women to 1st place finish

Saturday, both the men’s and women’s cross country teams competed in the Woody Greeno/Nebraska Wesleyan University Cross Country Meet in Lincoln, and both teams were successful.

The women finished their 6K race first out of 14 teams with 44 points and four runners in the top eight. Benedictine College of Kansas was second with 74 points followed by Nebraska Wesleyan with 104 points.

The women’s team was led by Jayme Nunes, senior of Alliance, who finished third with a time of 23:03.8. Some other notable performances were senior Rebecca Volf, of Woof River, who finished fourth with 23:08.2; and the fifth place finisher with a time of 23:11.3, a Chadron native, junior, Nicky Banzhaf. Freshman Alyse Henry, of Rock Springs, Wyoming, finished eighth with a time of 23:30.4.

“I was really proud of our team,” Banzhafsaid. “It really helped that up until the 4K our four leaders were in a close pack constantly calling each other’s names which helps us feel support knowing we have someone there with us.”

Iowa Central Community College runner, Leanne Pompeani, freshman of Canberra, Australia, was the individual winner in the college division with a time of 21:52.2 only 1:11.6 faster than Nunes. The mark was also faster than that of the winner of the university division by 22 seconds.

The men finished the 8K race fifth out of 15 with a score of 159. Leading the Eagles was junior Dylan Stansbury, of Crawford. Stansbury placed fourth overall and had a time of 25:59.  Finishing in 12th for the Eagles was senior Evans Koech, of Nairobi, Kenya, with 26:27.8. Eric Yager, sophomore of Hot Springs, South Dakota, finished 42nd with a time of 27:30.9. Finishing 48th, sophomore of Chadron, Phil Duncan, crossed the line in 27:46.5. Levi Avila, sophomore of Mitchell, finished 53rd, in 27:55.1.

Again an Iowa Central runner took first place. Andrew Ronoh, freshman of Nakuru, Kenya, had a time of 24:51.3 only 38 seconds faster than Stansbury. Second place was taken by Garrett Kenyon, senior of Colorado Springs, Colorado, at Creighton University with a time of  25:10.

The Eagles next meet will be Saturday Oct. 3 at the Chile Pepper invitational in Arkansas.