SAN ANGELO, TEXAS -- West Texas A&M claimed its eighth consecutive men's cross country title and DBU won its first women’s cross country championship at the 2020 LSC Cross Country Championships held Saturday at Angelo State in San Angelo.

RESULTS: MEN | WOMEN

    WT's Innocent Murwanashyaka earned Newcomer of the Year honors and paced the Buffs with his second-place finish in 25:04.51, and was one of five WT runners to earn all-conference honors. Butare Rugenerwa and Arnaud Taki finished just behind Murwanashyaka in third and fourth and were followed by Harry Louradour (9th) and Briggs Wittlake (13th) to round out the scoring for the Buffs who finished with 30 points.

    Oklahoma Christian finished as runner-up with 72 points and two all-conference performances. The Eagles were led by Colten Brown (5th) and Colton Meyers (7th) who finished just four seconds apart. OC also got top 20 scores from Jelte van Atten (18th) and Owen Pearce (19th). Caleb Bozarth rounded out the scoring for the Eagles in 23rd. 

    UT Tyler took home third-place honors with 111 points. The Patriots were paced by freshman Angel Contreras who finished 12th with a time of 25:33.28. Landon Thornton (20th), Lorenzo Chavez (24th), Kalen Barlow (26th) and Matthew Cecotti (29th) also scored for UTT.

    Western New Mexico finished fourth with 140 points followed by Texas A&M-Commerce with 143 points to round out the top five.

    TAMUC's Nicodemus Rotich became the first Lions runner to win the individual title since 1986 coming up with an 8-kilometer time of 24:51.00 which was nearly 14 seconds better than second place. Rotich has now won all four races he has run this season and earned LSC Freshman of the Year honors. 

    In the women's race, DBU claimed its first LSC Cross Country Championship with an incredible 25 points in the 15-team field. The Lady Patriots marked the lowest point total for a women's champion since 1996 when Abilene Christian posted a score of 21 in the 10-team race. DBU was led by Madison Brown who finished second in 22.18.24. Brown was one of five runners from DBU to place inside the top 10 as the Lady Patriots did not pick up a point after ninth place. Marissa Insinna finished in third followed by Leslie Filorio and Emily Mackel in fifth and sixth. Jenna Thorman's ninth-place finish rounded out the scoring for DBU. Analynne Klotz and Martha Brown also earned all-conference honors.

    WT finished in second place with 85 points. The Lady Buffs were led by 2020 LSC Women's Cross Country Individual Champion and LSC Newcomer of the Year Florance Uwajeneza who finished the 6-kilometer course in 20:50.60 which was 28 seconds faster than Brown in second. Uwajeneza is the fourth individual champion from WT since 2012 and the first since 2016 when Nikolina Hrelec was the top finisher. Nyia Sena (16th), Daphne Pate (17th), Lana Belmares (27th), Maddie Hooker (28th) rounded out the scoring for the Lady Buffs. 

    St. Edward's rounded out the top three with 107 points. The Hilltoppers were led by all-conference performer Kaitlyn Stark who finished 13th in 22:53.67. Lizbett Rivera (22nd), Ellie Hovre (23rd), Faith Brothers (26th) Marcela Perches (29th) all scored inside the top 30 to close out the scoring for SEU. Hovre also earned LSC Freshman of the Year honors as the highest-placed rookie in the race.

    Texas A&M International finished in fourth with 132 points and Midwestern State finished with 156 points to round out the top five.

    The top 15 finishers for both the men and women earned LSC All-Conference honors.