By Daniel Rankin —
This weekend the Louisville Cardinals’ Men and Women’s Cross Country team competed in the 20th annual Live In Lou Cross Country Classic at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park. It is one of the largest college meets of the year with more than 2,600 runners from 140 colleges.
The Men’s 8k kicked off the day. Freshman Ian Kibiwot, with a time of 23:44.4, finished 15th overall; the highest for U of L. Junior Shadrack Kipkosgei (23:56.9) and graduate student Albert Kosgei (23:57.5) followed not far behind, finishing 21st and 22nd respectfully. Senior Ben Ewert rounded out the top four in 67th at 24:37.2.
Louisville finished 4th out of 36 in team points and satisfied head coach Dale Cowper. “The guys came out and did an excellent job,” he said.
The front four also came out and executed the race plan that assistant coach Eric Heins put together.
“[I’m] excited about the men’s result and mostly their effort,” said Heins. “This is one of our top finishes out here.”
In the Women’s 5k, senior Purity Sanga lead the way for the Cards, finishing in 27th with a time of 17:11.3. Behind her was senior Emma Bryant (17:41.1) in 56th, Ivine Chemutai (18:23.8) in 133rd, and Mattie Kindelsperger (18:42.5) in 179th; rounding out the top 4.
“Purity did a really nice job upfront,” said Cowper.”We’re excited about where Purity, Emma and Ivine will be.”
Up next for the Cardinals is the Texas A&M’s Arturo Barrios Invitational on October 16th. This will wrap up the regular season before the conference and regional championships in November.
Photo Courtesy of Daniel Rankin // The Louisville Cardinal
