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CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. - Eastern Kentucky sophomore
James Sugira and Tennessee Tech sophomore
Purity Sanga were named the 2018 OVC Male and Female Cross Country Athletes of the Year in a vote of league head coaches on the eve of the 2018 OVC Cross Country Championship. In addition, Belmont’s
Jacob McLeod, Tennessee Tech’s
Janet Kwambai and Eastern Kentucky’s
Lilian Ndorobo were named the 2018 OVC Freshmen of the Year. The awards were handed out at an awards banquet on Friday night.
Prior to the 2011 season the awards for the top honors in cross country were determined by placement at the OVC Championship but were changed to a vote in 2011. This year's OVC Championship will be held on Saturday, October 27 at the Osage Center in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Following the race, the awards for Athletes of the Championships, Coach of the Year and the All-OVC teams will be awarded.
Sugira joined the EKU program prior to this season and has made an immediate impact, leading the nationally-ranked Colonels in each of his races. He opened his Colonel career by winning the Vanderbilt Commodore Classic, topping the field of 139 runners by over 30 seconds and helping EKU to the team title. Two weeks later he was fourth out of 224 competitors at the Nuttycombe Wisconsin Invitational, an event that included 18 nationally-ranked teams. His time of 23:22.3 in that meet ranks as the top 8K time in the OVC this season. He capped the regular season by winning the Penn State National Open, covering the 5.2-mile course in 24:40, nine seconds better than second-place, helping the Colonels to a second-place finish in a field of 21 teams (six of which were nationally-ranked). Sugira is currently ranked No. 7 in FloTrack’s national individual rankings. It marks the 31st time that an Eastern Kentucky runner has been named Athlete of the Year and the 14th time in the past 15 years.
Sanga, last year’s OVC Freshman of the Year, was named OVC Runner of the Week a record five times in 2018, including an unprecedented four weeks in a row. She opened the season with a first-place finish in the Golden Eagle Invitational. A week later she was second out of 186 competitors at the Vanderbilt Commodore Classic, establishing a new school record in the 5K. That record stood for only a week, as she bested it by 39 seconds a week later in finishing second at the Florida Mountain Dew Invitational, with an OVC-best 5K time of 16:41.58. Sanga went on to finish third at the Louisville Invitational and in her last race took first place out of 142 runners at the UAB Blazer Classic. Sanga has been Tennessee Tech’s top finisher in 10-straight meets dating back to last season and has had five-straight finishes in five meets in a row. Sanga is the second Tennessee Tech individual to be named Female Athlete of the Year, joining Stephanie Place in 2008.
McLeod began his college career with a first-place finish at the Belmont Opener, out-dueling his older brother Kaleb to best the field of 70. He would go on to place ninth out of 139 runners at the Vanderbilt Commodore Classic before taking sixth in a field of 252 at the Greater Louisville Classic. McLeod’s performance helped Belmont to a third-place team finish and lifted them to a No. 4 regional ranking. His 8K time of 23:55.9 in that race ranks as the third-best in the OVC this season. He capped the regular season by finishing 28th at the competitive NCAA Pre-National meet. McLeod is the second Belmont runner to win the award, joining Declan McManus who claimed the honor in 2015.
For the first time in the history of the award, there was a tie for Female Freshman of the Year.
Kwambai ran second to Sanga in four of Tennessee Tech’s five races this season. She opened the year with a second-place finish at the Golden Eagle Invitational before finishing 53rd at the Vanderbilt Commodore Classic. At the Florida Mountain Dew Invitational on September 22, she ran the seventh-fastest 5K time in the OVC (17:38.31), a time that is tops among OVC freshmen in 2018. In her last race, she placed 35th at the UAB Blazer Classic. Kwambai is the second-straight Tennessee Tech runner to be named OVC Freshman of the Year.
After not competing in the team’s first two events of the year, Ndorobo ran her best time of the season at the Greater Louisville Classic on September 29, finishing 38th in the field of 226 with a time of 17:44.9. In her last race she was the third EKU runner across the line at the competitive Penn State National Open with a 6K time of 21:43. Ndorobo is the third Eastern Kentucky runner to win the award, joining Julia van Velthoven (2012) and Lilian Jeptoo Kiborus (2016).