A busy weekend of competition culminated Tuesday morning at the NJCAA Half Marathon National Championships in Richmond, Virginia. The women from Trinidad State came into the 13.1 mile race looking to improve upon their 7th place finish at the Cross Country National Championships only a few days prior. With cool temperatures and partly sunny skies, conditions were well suited for the long race which would take most the field over 90 minutes. 

Early in the race Ashley Lagat of TSC stalked a lead pack of runners as the leading Trojan. Sharon Jesang sat a little further back in around 8th place. Holly Tsosie bided her time in 23rd place early on, before beginning to move up as the miles rolled by. El Paso Community College got to the lead of the team race early on, largely supplied by strong front running from Faith Nyathi who took off from the gun and won in runaway fashion. Lagat took turns pushing the pace and sitting behind other competitors as the field moved into the rolling hills between miles 8 and 12. Lagat went on to finish 5th overall and lead the Trojans. Jesang came across next in 6th place. Holly Tsosie continued to move through the field late in the race to eventually finish in 9th place. All three of those ladies earned All-American status and cemented TSC as National Runners-Up. Kianna Quintana ran her second great race of the weekend, finishing in 28th place. Not far behind was Kaleia Vicenti in 31st place. Tamsin Stewart showed her speed over the final stretch of the race and finished in 39th place. 

Finishing 2nd at Nationals marks the second year in a row the Trojan ladies have been top-2 at Nationals. Of the performance Coach Lauren Masterson said, "We are very excited for our women today. It was a tight battle the whole way. Our ladies kept competing and moving forward throughout the race. That's all you can ask for; competing their best from start to finish."