LONDON, Ont. – Trinity Western first-year Justin Kiplagat (Eldoret, Kenya) earned a spot on the U SPORTS All-Rookie Team as he led the Spartans at the U SPORTS Championships with a 46th-place finish overall Sunday at the Thames Valley Golf Course.
Kiplagat clocked a time of 25:54.8 over the eight-kilometre course as he made his debut on the national stage.
On the women's side, Naomi Residorf (Langley, B.C.) was the Spartans top finisher, finishing in 32:58.9 over the same eight kilometres as the men's race to finish 122nd overall. Constance Nankivell (Edinburgh, Scotland), who led the Spartans women's team all year, winning two races and earning Canada West All-Star honours at the conference championships, did not travel with the team to London due to injury.
RESULTS
Women
122nd – Naomi Reisdorf – 32:58.9
133rd – Maddie Gibson – 33:46.8
Men
46th – Justin Kiplagat – 25:54.8
98th –
David Mutai – 26:55.7
99th –
Daniel Toneguzzi – 26:55.8
129th – Hilary Yego – 27:44.9
146th –
Andrew Gunnink – 28:17.2
QUOTABLE
Shane Wiebe – Lead Distance Coach
"For a team with four first-year athletes – talking about the men – we couldn't be happier. Justin has broken through and has really pleasantly surprised us over these last couple of competitions. On the women's side, we really missed Constance here. It was hard to leave her back home because of her injury, but Maddie and Naomi did well for us. Similar to the men's race, it was a really strong field in the women's event and I think this was the most difficult course I've seen in the five years that I've been the head coach. All in all, we're pretty happy with the day. We've battled through a few things and it's only up from here."
About Spartan Athletics
As official members of U SPORTS, the Spartans currently compete in 13 sports in the Canada West conference, including women's and men's soccer, volleyball, basketball, hockey, cross country and track & field, as well as women's rugby sevens. TWU also competes as an independent team in men's rugby and disc golf. Since TWU entered U SPORTS in 1999, the Spartans have won 13 U SPORTS team championships and 33 Canada West team championships.
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