Men's Cross Country Dominates Crimson Classic
9/17/2005 12:00:00 AM
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The Alabama men's cross country dominated the field of the 17th Crimson Classic held on the Harry Pritchett Cross Country Course Saturday morning.
The Crimson Tide swept first through fourth place and took sixth place to score a meet low 16 points. Even more impressive for the Tide is that freshmen took the top three places with Augustus Maiyo taking first with a 24:42.96.
But the runners weren't the only ones moving fast. Alabama cross country coach Joe Walker stuck around long enough to see his team win the individual and team race, meet with them briefly and then he was in his car and headed to the birth of his second child.
"I'm extremely proud of the job coach (Joe) Walker has done and of course we're thinking of him and his wife as they have their child today," Tide head coach Harvey Glance said. "It was great to have this kind of performance at home and to let everyone see that we're back," Glance added. "It's been a long hard struggle and it was a lot of fun to be out on the course and have a lot of folks come up to me and congratulate us and tell me it's good to see us back. It's good to be back."
Freshmen Titus Koeh and Abraham Kutingala were second and third respectively with times of 24:47.75 and 25:00.70. Sophomore Alex Korir was fourth at 25:08.36 while senior Peter Etoot rounded out the Tide's scoring five with a sixth place, 25:37.40.
I'm really proud to see our freshmen taking the top three spots," Glance said. "It certainly bodes well for the future. Alex Korir who has been so good for us over the last several years, had a tooth pulled two days ago, so for him to come out here and have this kind of performance today is pretty remarkable. Senior Peter Etoot ran a great race, coming away with a personal best to take sixth place."
Mississippi State was second with 70 points and Lamar was third at 120. There were also high school and junior high school races as part of the Crimson Classics, the results of which can be found at www.cfpitiming.com.
Alabama returns to action Sept. 30 with the Adidas Notre Dame Invitatioanl in South Bend.
