Korir wins third consecutive raceBy Glypie Grider

After sitting out a week of competition, the University of Louisville men’s cross country team donned their running shoes and hit the race course at record speed.
He’s unstoppable.
Freshman Wesley Korir, a native of Eldoret, Kenya, led the University of Louisville men’s cross country team as he nabbed first place honors at Saturday’s Greater Louisville Classic hosted by the Greater Louisville Sports Commission at E.P. “Tom” Sawyer Park.
Korir won the 8-kilometer course in 24:22.82 out of a field of 397 runners. This marks Korir’s third first-place finish in three events.
They’re unstoppable.
Louisville won the Greater Louisville Classic team competition in a field of 41 at the race.
Four Cardinals finished in the top 10. Sophomore Wes Seacat covered the course in 25:01.37 for a fifth-place finish (his second top-5 finish of the season). Sophomore Nurani Sheikh pulled in seventh-place honors with a time of 25:03.48. Junior Tim Kaiser rounded out the four Cardinal top-10 finishers with a time of 25:08.28 and 10th place. Junior Brian Hurst closed out Cardinal team scoring with a 17th-place finish and a time of 25:27.47.
The Cardinals finished with 40 team points, 99 points better than distant second place finisher Rend Lake College (139 points). Aquinas College, Belmont University and Georgia State rounded out the top-5 teams.
“We’re off to a solid start through the first three races, and I’m very happy that we had a strong showing here in front of our home fans,” said U of L cross country head coach Ron Mann. “We’ve worked very hard to stress the team concept since we started practice and it seems to be paying off because we’re still undefeated through three meets,” he added.
The Cardinals have won three straight races: the Greater Louisville Classic, the Commodore Classic hosted by Vanderbilt on Sept. 11 and the Woodford Trials hosted by the University of Kentucky on Sept. 3. Korir has won all three races.
Coming attractions.
The Cards host the annual Cardinal Cross Country Classic at the U of L Shelby Campus on Saturday. The event is slated to begin at 10 a.m. with the women’s 5-kilometer race followed by the men’s 8-kilometer race at 10:45 a.m.
“I think it’s been very important for us to have some early success and build some confidence in our team,” Mann said. “Hopefully, we can use these early races as motivation and gain more and more momentum as we work towards the end of the season.”