By Blake Vines | Reporter

Ruth Kimeli closed the Baylor cross-country season with a 112th-place finish at the NCAA Championships on Saturday.

The sophomore set a new personal record for the Gans Creek Cross Country Course, running a 20:00:3 in the 6K race. She came just shy of setting a career personal record.

Kimeli finished 112th among more than 260 competitors in the NCAA Championships. Her time marked a significant improvement from her previous fastest finish at Gans Creek, 20:12:3, recorded in 2024. At the time, it was the 18th-fastest time ever run on the course.

This year was Kimeli’s second consecutive appearance at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.

“I think the only way to get better at being in championship races is to run championship races,” head cross-country coach David Barnett said. “There’s really nothing like it. You’re going to have a big crowd, you’re going to have a lot of energy there.”

Off the start, Kimeli was string and energetic as she reached the 1K marker in a quick 3:05:4 and remained steady at the 3K marker in 55th place at 9:35:4, the 10th-fastest 3K time in the history of the Baylor track and field program. If she had kept this pace, she would have been able to close out the race only a few seconds out of a top-40 finish. But in the second half of the race, her final 3K time dropped to a 10:24:9, pushing her back 57 spots.

“I’m super proud of her,” Barnett said. “Making it to a national meet in any of the three sports we do [cross country, indoor and outdoor track], you have to be able to do it that day. So, that’s a big deal. Super happy for her. I think she’ll continue to improve and get the hang of it all.”