Men's Results /
Women's Results
WARRENSBURG, Mo. – A bounce-back season for the ACU men's and women's cross country teams continued Saturday at the NCAA Division II South Central Region championship meet.
ACU's
Amos Sang won the individual regional championship as the Wildcats finished second to qualify for the national championship meet, and Anais Belledant won the women's individual championship and finished ninth in the team standings.
The men's team and Belledant will compete at the national meet, which is set for Dec. 4 in Louisville, Ky.
The men qualified for the national meet after a disappointing 10th-place finish at last year's regional meet. But the Wildcats wiped away the memory of that finish with Saturday's performance.
"It's a big relief for our guys to get back to the national championship meet," ACU head coach Chris Woods said. "They put a lot of pressure on themselves– maybe too much – to get back to the national meet. But we don't have any pressure on us going into the national meet. We can just train and then go out there and run and see what happens.
"Before the season started, no one expected us to get to the national meet," Woods said, "so we've come a long way this year."
Sang won his second straight regional championship by covering the 10-kilometer course in 30:42.96, beating runner-up Laban Sialo of team champion Central Missouri by almost 30 seconds (31:12.18). Sang's ACU teammate,
Cleophas Tanui, finished third in 31:21.60, while
Romain Rybicki was seventh in 31:53.62.
Junior
Jake Schofield finished 43rd in 33:55.08, while freshman
Will Mack finished 65th in 34:31.15 to round out the Wildcats' top five.
"
Will Mack was our No. 5 guy today, and he stepped up big-time," Woods said. "He did what he had to do to help us qualify and get to the national meet."
But it was Sang who led the way, winning for the second time on the Keith Williams Golf Course this season after leading ACU to a team win at the Central Missouri Mule Run in September.
"I keep telling people that Amos is another tax bracket from the rest of us," Woods said. "He's in the seven-figure bracket, while the rest of us are in the five-figure bracket. He's a great athlete who just continues to amaze me."
Belledant – who won the Lone Star Conference championship on Nov. 6 in Abilene – covered the 6-kilometer course in 22:14.43 to win the regional championship by more than one minute over runner-up Anja Puc of Nebraska-Omaha (22:23.16).
"Anais ran a great race," Woods said. "She ran her heart out and just dominated the race. She told me when we were coming up here that she was going to win the race, and once she said that I knew it would happen."
Chloe Susset was 10th for the Wildcats in 22:50.34, while Alyse Goldsmith was 15th in 23:01.17 to help the Wildcats to the ninth-place finish. Pittsburg State won the team championship with LSC champion Midwestern State second and defending regional champion Missouri Southern was third as all three teams qualified for the national championship meet.
