Pole Green Park in Richmond, Virginia played host to a dynamic men's NJCAA Cross Country National Championship race Saturday morning. The Trinidad State Trojans entered the meet as the 9th ranked team in the country, up a few spots from their ranking of 14th the weeks prior.
The starting gun went off at 10:30am on a cool and blustery Virginia morning. With the most stacked field the NJCAA has ever seen, the first mile of the 8 kilometer (4.97 miles) was blitzed in 4 minutes and thirty seconds, with Trojans Brian Rotich, Emmanuel Biwott, and Reagan Longei stalking the leaders. By 5 kilometers a few runners had separated the early lead pack. Brian Rotich continued to stick with the leaders, while Biwott and Longei were just behind. Jarred Baca and Adrian Villareal, both freshmen from New Mexico, worked together in the middle of the pack for most of the race.
As the field got into the latter stages of the race Brian Rotich pushed forward past some struggling runners to finish 7th place, in 24:25; the fastest time a Trinidad State athlete has ever run in cross country. Reagan Longei, who has been nursing a back injury for the latter half of the season finished in 18th place with a time of 25:06. Emmanuel Biwott was the third Trojan across the line in 20th place and 25:09. After spending most the season as the 7th runner, Adrian Villareal saved his best performance for the biggest stage as he finished as the 4th trojan in 50th place. Jarred Baca rounded out the scoring runners for TSC in 66th place. Ethan Coyhis and Conner Dosmann completed the Trojan contingent in 81st and 83rd place. With many position changes over the course of the race, the Trojan men finished in 4th place as a team.
Coach Lauren Masterson complemented the men's efforts following the race saying, "Our guys gave great efforts today. We always strive to perform best at the National meet. Unfortunately we came into the race with some key athletes battling injury. Nonetheless, each and every one of our guys gave us everything they had today." This 4th place finish marks the highest finish of a TSC cross country team. "We are really excited to continue to elevate the bar and cement our institution as one of the best in the country," continued Coach Masterson. "Brian Rotich made us proud battling up front for the entirety of the race. Reagan Longei was an All-American despite missing training due to injury. Emmanuel Biwott has been a force for us all season. And of course I'd be remiss to not mention the clutch performance from Adrian Villareal. This performance is something to be proud of, but I'm also very excited for what these five returning freshmen can do a year from now." The three All-American awards marks the most All-Americans a men's cross country team has won at one time. The men's team Championship went to Iowa Central Community College while the individual title went to Vincent Nchogu of Northwest Kansas.
Though the cross country season is complete, the Trojans will be back competing on Tuesday for the Half Marathon National Championships.