Saturday, November 18, 2017

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Alaska Anchorage’s Edwin Kangogo will finish his career as a three-time All-American while Western Oregon’s David Ribich earned his first cross country trophy to lead the GNAC at the 2017 NCAA Division II Men’s Cross Country Championships, held Nov. 18 at Angel Mounds in Evansville, Indiana.

Kangogo moved up 15 places from his finish a year ago, leading the conference with a 19th place time of 31:32.5 over the 10,000-meter course. For the first time, Kangogo came to nationals alone as Alaska Anchorage did not qualify for the first time since 2007.

Ribich, the GNAC and NCAA West Region champion, collected his first cross country award to add his collection or indoor and outdoor track and field All-American collection. The senior finished 30th with a time of 31:47.1, the best placing ever for a Western Oregon runner at the NCAA Cross Country Championships.

Ribich led Western Oregon, the only GNAC team in the field, to a 21st place finish with a score of 534 points. It is the Wolves’ first trip to the national meet as a team.

Adams State repeated as the team champion with a score of 44 points and swept both the men’s and women’s team titles. Grand Valley State placed second with 64 points. Tiffin’s James Ngandu was the individual champion in a time of 30:18.8.

NCAA DIVISION II MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
at Angel Mounds, Evansville, Indiana

Men’s Team Scores (Top 10 Plus GNAC): 1, Adams State 44. 2, Grand Valley St. 64. 3, Colorado Mines 85. 4, Western State 215. 5, Cal Baptist, 229. 6, Queens (N.C.), 243. 7, CSU-Pueblo, 310. 8, Augustana (S.D.), 326. 9, Chico State, 335. 10, Shippensburg, 351. 21, Western Oregon, 534.

Top 10 Finishers (10,000 Meters): 1, James Ngandu, Tiffin, 30:18.8. 2, Zach Panning, Grand Valley St., 30:52.8. 3, Kyle Adams, Adams State, 30:56.7. 4, Kyle Medina, Chico State, 31:04.3. 5, Grant Colligan, Colorado Mines, 31:05.6. 6, Enael Woldemichael, Grand Valley St., 31:07.0. 7, Elias Gedyon, Adams State, 31:09.3. 8, Leakey Kipkosgei, American International, 31:10.3. 9, Joshua Joseph, Adams State, 31:12.2. 10, Adam Craig, Mount Olive, 31:17.5.

GNAC All-Americans (Top-40): 19, Edwin Kangogo, UAA, 31:32.5. 30, David Ribich, WOU, 31:47.1

Other GNAC Finishers: 88, Josh Dempsey, WOU, 32:37.9. 118, Tyler Jones, WOU, 33:09.9. 186, Justin Crosswhite, WOU, 34:12.4. 202, Dustin Nading, WOU, 34:31.7. 240, Hunter Mosman, WOU, 35:30.3. 245, Parker Marson, WOU, 36:08.6.