Garcia qualifies for championships

Alejandro Garcia, senior of Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, became CSC’s first male cross country runner to qualify for the NCAA D-II Championships Saturday, just two weeks after becoming CSC’s first male runner to earn RMAC first-team honors.
The first five teams and the next three individuals, not on those first five teams, qualified for the championships during the D-II South Central Region meet at Washington Park in Denver.
Garcia earned the third individual spot finishing 21st of 193 competitors. Garcia’s qualifying time on the 10k course was 32 minutes, 21 seconds.
The men’s team was ranked sixth, but finished 11th of 28 teams. Along with Garcia, other CSC men whose places counted toward the team score were Eric Yager, junior of Hot Springs, South Dakota; Dylan Stansbury, senior of Crawford; Levi Avila, junior of Mitchell; and Phillip Duncan, junior of Chadron, in 37th, 40th, 86th, and 96th, respectively.
The CSC women placed 19 of 27 teams. Kiya Passero, freshman of Chadron, led the women’s team Saturday covering the 6k course in 24:53 for 79th place of 182 runners. Other scorers were Taylor Allison, junior of Gordon; Margaret Vinton, senior of North Platte; Savannah Silbaugh, freshman of Upton, Wyoming; and Dominique Oden, freshman of Anaheim, California, in 81st, 92nd, 120th, and 129th, respectively.
Garcia will participate in the NCAA D-II Championships on Nov. 19 in St. Leo, Florida.