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BCC men place 15th, Laari 7th
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A good finish to a good season. The Barton Community College men’s cross country capped off one of its better season recently by earning a 15th place effort at the NJCAA National Championship in Lubbock this past weekend.
Sampson Laari, running his first season of cross country, finished seventh at the meet to lead the way. The seventh place finish was the highest since Jake Raines finished second in 2004. He also finished fourth his freshman season. It was the highest team finish since the 2003 season when Barton finished in the top five.
Iowa Central Community College won a close 3-team battle for the NJCAA team title, finishing with 62 points. Central Arizona was next with 68 followed closely to host South Plains (Texas) College with 71. Colby Community College was the top Region VI finisher in fifth with 160 points while Allen County also earned a Top 10 finish in ninth with 319.
Highland College was 14th (440 points) and Barton took 15th just behind Highland with 444. Butler (17th) and Hutchinson (19th) also earned Top 20 finishes.
Laari was the second Region VI runner to cross the finish line as Butler Community College’s Kennedy Chumba took sixth at 25:01 over the 8K course at Shadow Hills Golf Course. That started a string of four straight Region VI runners. Laari was next at 25:05 followed by a pair of Colby Community College runners.
Freshman Devyn Brotherton from Wyoming earned a Top 50 finish with a 48th place effort in 26:40. Another freshman, Tony Perez, returned to his home state and cracked the Top 100 with a time of 27:48 for a 97th place effort.
The Cougars team was comprised of entirely freshman – although Laari is listed as a freshman since he didn’t run cross country last year. He will be a sophomore this spring during track and will not return.
Elder Colindres ran a 29:09 and Tyler Thornton a 29:15 to finish in spots 172 and 176. Abilene’s Marcus Pastran and Great Bend’s Cole Stiner rounded out the Cougars team with times of 29:48 and 33:28 – good for 201 and 247 in the large field of nearly 260 runners.