 "Photo: Special to the Prospector / UTEP Athletics")
While the wait extended for more than two decades, for one UTEP team that wait will come to an end this weekend.
The Miners' women's cross country team qualified for the NCAA Championship for the first time since 1987 and will compete in the meet Nov. 23 at Indiana State University's LaVern Gibson Championship Course in Terre Haute, Ind. The last time the women's team qualified for the NCAA Championships, they finished fifth overall.
"This isn't something that actually happened in one day," head coach Paul Ereng said. "It was from the very beginning, they set their mind to it and focused. This is an accumulation of all the hard work they put in."
Heading into regionals, the Miners knew that they faced a daunting task to qualify for the championship, with a very deep field they had to contend with. After entering the meet as the sixth best team, the Miners surprised the field and put themselves in a spot to gain an at-large bid.
The team received that bid to the championships after finishing in fourth place at the NCAA Mountain Regional Championship Nov. 14 in Albuquerque, N.M. The Miners finished behind automatic qualifiers Colorado and Texas Tech and are joined in Terre Haute by the third- place school BYU, who also received an at-large bid.
"They were very happy to go through because for many years, the women's team has watched the men go to nationals and they never had a chance," Ereng said. "This was a big achievement for them, they are excited to go through and are curious to see how they will perform against the best."
Freshman Risper Kimaiyo has run very well over her last two meets. She entered regionals having won the women's individual title at the Conference USA Championship. Kimaiyo followed that up with another solid race, which put UTEP in a good position to garner the at-large bid after she led the Miners in the 6K run with a time of 20:46, good enough for fourth place.
She was one of five Miners to finish in the top 40, along with Kathya Garcia (15th), Gladys Chumba (29th), Jepchirchir Kigen (32nd) and Karina Garcia (36th).
There was a bit of drama as the race ended as the initial results had the Miners in third overall, which could clusion of the race, the scores were readjusted and UTEP ended up dropping to fourth.
In addition to the women's team qualifying, two runners from the men's team also booked their tickets to the championship and will represent the Miners in Indiana. All-American Nicodemus Ng'etich and first-year runner Elkana Rotich earned automatic qualifying bids to the national meet. The duo will be competing in the men's 10K race.
"This is great news for our women's team," Ereng said. "The men fell short, but we're still going to be represented by two of our runners in the men's race."
For Ng'etich, it is an opportunity to improve on his placing from last season's championship race and he hopes to garner a second consecutive All-American honor as well. The senior runner came in 30th place in last year's race. Rotich will be racing at the championship for the first time.
Ng'etich and Rotich were two integral parts to this year's men's team that won the Conference USA championship, finishing second and fourth respectively in that race.
Ereng believes that this race could symbolize a passing of the torch from Ng'etich to Rotich, who will be only a sophomore and has plenty of time to get even better. By qualifying to nationals so quickly in his career, Rotich could be the leader of the team next season.
"This is really good because once you get a freshman to experience nationals, first he gets that experience and then they know and take care of business after that," Ereng said. "Nicodemus is leaving after this year and it's good to have a freshman to fill in those shoes and lead next year. This is a very good thing."
The men's race will begin at 10:08 a.m. and will be followed up by the women's race at approximately 10:58 a.m. Both championship races will be broadcast live on the Versus Network and streamed online via NCAA.com.
Herman Rojas may be reached at prospector@utep.edu.
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