LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Aliphine Tuliamuk won the Pre-National women's 6K cross country seeded race and also broke her own WSU 6K record by nearly 14 seconds. The women finished 21st overall as a team and the men finished 37th overall. Tuliamuk won the 6K race with a time of 19:43.90, three seconds faster than second place finisher Risper Kimaiyo from UTEP.
"I thought Aliphine ran a great race today," Head Coach Kirk Hunter said. "It was nice to see her have to compete with the top runners in the nation today and for her to win the seeded race is great. I am very happy for her."
"I am very happy that I was able to win this race, especially with all these great runners in the field today," Tuliamuk said. "This race shows me what I need to do to prepare for the NCAA national meet." Tuliamuk added.
The WSU women's team also had strong races from Kaitlyn McLeod (21:44.40), Samantha Shukla (21:51.10), and Elida Bailon (21:55.20).
"Overall we ran great as a group," Hunter said. "We are getting better and we have competed very well at every meet. I hope we can continue our success going into the conference championship in a couple weeks."
The Shocker men were led by sophomore Sterling Spencer with an 8K time of 24:37.80. Following Spencer were seniors Jake Wike and Marcos Bailon. Wike finished in 24:58.90 and Bailon finished in 25:03.40.
"I thought our guys bounced back from a disappointing performance at OSU. Although, the results don't show it, we did what we needed to do against the best teams in the country. Hunter said. "We still have some injuries to recover from and preparation to do before the MVC championship."
The Shockers next compete Sat., Oct. 27 at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships in Normal, Ill.
-Wichita State-
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