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The Eastern Kentucky men's cross country team finished 16th at the NCAA Cross Country Championship held at the Thomas Zimmer Championship Course in Madison, Wisconsin.
The event featured snow and bitter cold conditions.
The Colonels were led by redshirt freshman
James Sugira, who finished 14th overall to earn All-American honors. Other individuals in the race included Belmont freshman
Jacob McLeod, who was 107th while his brother
Kaleb McLeod was 224th. In the women's race, Tennessee Tech sophomore
Purity Sanga, the OVC Athlete of the Year and Athlete of the Championship, finished 128th overall.
For the EKU men it was is the second-best national finish in program history, nearly topping the Colonels' 15th place finish at the 2013 NCAA Championships. EKU came into the meet ranked No. 21 in the country, but finished with 430 points on the day to take 16th place.
The Colonels defeated the likes of Ole Miss (17th), Indiana (18th), Michigan (19th), Villanova (23rd), Arkansas (25th), Syracuse (26th), Texas (27th) and Florida State (31st).
In his first-ever NCAA Championships appearance, Sugira battled snowy Wisconsin conditions to finish 14th out of 252 of the best distance runners in the country. He covered the rugged 10K course in a time of 29:35.6. It marks the 14th time an EKU runner has earned NCAA cross country All-America honors. Sugira's 14th place finish is the best by a Colonel at the NCAA meet since Jacob Korir took sixth in 2007.
Senior
Jaime Romo was second on the team and 82nd overall with a time of 30:29.4. Three Colonels then finished in a pack to seal the 16th place finish. Senior
Erick Rotich was 144th (31:00.8), followed closely by senior
David Bascuñana (146th / 31:02.2) and freshman
Antoine Senard (148th / 31:02.7). Juniors
Samuel Abascal (199th / 31:40.6) and
Zach Stewart (206th / 31:47.1) also competed for the Colonels on the day.
The McLeod brothers were the first Belmont runners to compete in the National Championship since 2013. Jacob, the OVC Freshman of the Year, finished with a time of 30:41.5 to place 107th while Kaleb was 224th with a time of 32:14.1.
After finishing 217th at the NCAA Championship a year ago, Sanga improved by nearly 90 spots, running the 6K course in 21:19.3 (30 seconds faster than a year ago). It capped a year that saw her win five OVC Runner of the Week honors, capture three individual victories (including the OVC Championship) and finish seventh at the NCAA Regional.