Yego, Kimaiyo Lead Sandburg Women’s XC Team at Nationals; Men Place 28th

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — The Carl Sandburg College cross country teams closed their seasons at the NJCAA Division II Cross Country Championships on Saturday afternoon at John Hunt Park.

The Chargers men's team placed 28th in the 38-team field, while Sharon Yego and Damaris Kimaiyo turned in strong efforts to pace four Sandburg runners on the women's side.

Yego, the Region 4 champion, placed 28th with a time of 19 minutes, 48.6 seconds in the women's 5-kilometer race. Kimaiyo was right behind her in 29th place at 19:49.5. They marked the best finishes by a Sandburg women's runner at nationals since Haley Bolliger placed 24th in 2013.

Freshmen Jersee Hamm (127th, 22:03.7) and Ascar Jepchirchir (128th, 22:04.6) also competed for the Chargers women's team.

Lake Michigan's Olivia Ippel won the title in 17:56.6 to beat Heartland's Nora Brady by 8.5 seconds.

Allan Kipruto, the men's Region 4 champion, led the Chargers in the 8K race with a 60th-place finish and time of 27:02.8. Sandburg's other finishers were Meshack Kimutai (144th, 28:42.6), Titus Kimutai (195th, 29:57.8), Larry Kamara (272nd, 34:52.1) and Chandler Talley (275th, 35:00.3).

Collines Chelak, who finished fourth in the region meet and had been the Chargers' top runner for much of the season, did not finish after being tripped during the race.

Sandburg totaled 811 points, two behind 27th-place Kaskaskia. Lansing had 73 points to the win the national championship by five points over runner-up Heartland. Nathan Pestka of Paradise Valley was the individual national champion in a time of 24:49.1. 

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