TCU Women Place 7th; Men 26th at the Arkansas Chili Pepper Invitational

Mary Kinyanjui

Mary Kinyanjui captured the individual runnerup honors, leading the TCU women's cross country to a seventh place finish among 37 schools competing at the Chile Pepper Invitational, held on the Agri Park course here today. The TCU men's squad finished 26th among the 33 teams competing at one of the nation's most prestigious events.

Kinyanjui, a junior from Kiambu, Kenya, completed the women's 6K course in 20:56.50. Virginia Tech's Marlies Overbeeke won the race in 20:47.42. It marked the third straight meet in which Kinyanjui recorded a top-five individual finish. Katrina Zielinski was TCU's second runner, crossing the finish line in 22:08.27 to place 42nd overall, just two spots ahead of freshman Calandra Stewart (22:11.57).

Jackson Langat led the men's squad with a 47th place finish. He covered the 10K course in 31:19.33. Freshman Alex Morris was the second TCU finisher, breaking the finish line in 32:58.25.



"We had a mixed bag today on both the women's and men's side," said TCU coach Derek Koonts. "Mary ran lights out for us. She really looked good. Calandra Stewart was our third runner today and ran her best race of the year. We had a couple other runners who didn't have as good of days. We'll need to be clicking on all cylinders to compete for the conference title in two weeks."

"On the men's side, Jackson Langat looked much improved over the last time out," noted Koonts. "I thought freshman Alex Morris ran very well and some of the other guys showed some improvement while competing at 10,000 meters for the first time this fall."

The Frogs will not compete again until the Conference USA Cross Country Championships, which will be held in Tampa, Fla. on Saturday, November 1.

"We have faced some very strong competition in our last two meets, the Cowboy Jamboree in Stillwater and the Chile Pepper here today," said Koonts. "The conference meet will actually be much smaller than these two meets were and we should be ready to compete."