The 10th ranked UTEP cross country team won its first Conference USA title in convincing fashion on Saturday in Orlando, Fla.
UTEP finished first, third, fourth, fifth and 10th to score 23 points, topping second-place Rice by 31 points. Tulsa finished third with 58 points followed by UCF (115), Houston (142), Marshall (151), East Carolina (163) and Memphis (252). Miner coach Paul Ereng was named the league’s Coach of the Year for his team’s performance.
Freshman Patrick Mutai won his third title of the season setting a new course record by finishing the 8k race in 23:35.26. He was donned the Freshman of the Year by the conference.
Japheth Ng’ojoy ran third with a time of 23:41.08 with Stephen Samoei and Mircea Bogdan crossing in succession. Samoei was timed at 23:42.90 and Bogdan at 24:23.18.
El Paso native Joe Muoz ran 10th in 25:01.10, while Elias Koech was 22nd (25:57.63) and Kirk Bumgarner was 24th (25:59.39).
The crown is the first for UTEP since joining C-USA on July 1, 2005 and its first conference title since taking the Western Athletic Conference crown in 1992.
The UTEP women were seventh out of 11 teams, scoring 181 points. Rice won the team title with a tally of 46 points followed by UAB (57), SMU (86), Tulsa (101), Southern Miss (145) and Memphis (152).
Senior Fatimoh Muhammed led the way for the Miners taking eighth in a time of 17:42.73 in the 5k race.
Other competitors for the Miners included Kersta Caliz (26th, 18:29.96), Phanice Orora (40th, 19:01.68), Vanessa De La Rosa (52nd, 19:28.43), 54, Delia Cesar (54th, 19:30.62), Megan Chojnacki (61st, 19:50.71) and Crystal Garcia (72nd, 20:38.80).
UTEP will next run at the NCAA Mountain Regional on Nov. 12 in Provo, Utah.
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