By Blake Vines | Reporter
Baylor cross-country had a big showing Friday afternoon at the NCAA South Central Regional at Agri Park in Fayetteville, Ark. Multiple runners scored for the Bears, led by sophomore Ruth Kimeli, who earned All-Region honors.
Head coach David Barnett said the team has been focused on staying with the pack rather than trying to catch up, especially after Kimeli was never able to fully recover from a slow start in the Big 12 Championships. Nevertheless, she started strong Friday, leading the pack early and passing the 1,600-meter marker just five seconds out of the first-place position. She finished with a 6K time of 20:11:4.
“It’s better to keep up than catch up,” Barnett said. “It’s very unlikely that you’re going to come from behind. I thought Ruth competed really well at the front. I was really pleased.”
Kimeli finished the 6K race eighth overall and fifth among the runners not on automatic qualifying teams. She was an NCAA Championship qualifier last year and finished one spot shy of automatically qualifying for this year’s race.
Kimeli is still expected to qualify with one of two at-large spots given to the highest fifth-place finishers among the nine regional meets. The at-large selections will be announced Saturday morning.
“She ran really well,” Barnett said. “Some other people just had a better day, but she beat some really good women that scored on the track at [the NCAA Championships] last year.”
Other Bears who scored for the Bears included sophomores Ella Perry and Sally Corder, along with freshmen Rickeisha Simms and Rachel Haws. The women’s team finished 12th in the 24-team field.
“We just have to be a little more aggressive earlier in the race,” Barnett said. “But they’re getting valuable experience that I think [is] going to set us up to be a couple really strong teams in the future.”
Baylor’s sole runner on the men’s side, sophomore Jack Sterrett, finished 122nd in the 10K with a 33:31:9.
Kimeli will find out whether she will advance to run in the NCAA Championship when the at-large selections are announced at 4 p.m. Saturday. If she advances, she will compete in the championship race on Nov. 22 at the Gans Creek Course in Columbia, Mo.
