APSU Men’s Cross Country
Junior Enock Langat finished 14th to lead the Austin Peay State University men’s cross country team to a fifth-place finish in the Belmont-Vanderbilt Cross Country Opener, Friday, at Percy Warner Park.
The Govs finished in fifth place with 139 points. Middle Tennessee won the event with 49 points, stunning two regionally ranked teams which finished behind it. Tennessee, ranked No. 7 in the South Region, finished second followed by No. 15 Lipscomb in third and fourth-place Vanderbilt and then Austin Peay.
Langat finished the five-kilometer course in a time of 16:08.37 to lead the Govs efforts. The rest of the Govs squad finished among the top half of the 89-person field. Sophomore transfer Geofrey Kosgei finished 24th (16:18.58) and was closely followed by junior Boniface Yator in 25th place (16:20.86). Austin Peay’s other three runners finished in a group – junior Evan Collins in 49th (17:20.32), freshman Tyler Kepley in 50th (17:20.99) and sophomore Konnor Kessler in 51st (17:22.17).
“I was pleased with the effort we put out there today, especially considering the amount of work we did this week,” said Governors head coach Doug Molnar. “These guys went out on Sunday and ran 19 miles, worked out Monday and then ran 12 miles Tuesday, so today’s performance is really encouraging. And to see them run in the two groups was also a good sign for us, we try to run in closely to keep our score down and they did a good job of that today.”
