XC Opens Season Strong, Placing 1st and 3rd in Memphis

Saturday, August 31

Memphis, TN

9:20 PM

Middle Tennessee

Memphis Twilight XC Classic

9/1/2019 2:01:00 AM | Men's Cross Country and Track & Field, Women's Cross Country and Track & Field, Track & Field/Cross Country

Men's Results Women's Results

MEMPHIS, Tenn. – The Middle Tennessee cross country teams started the season off strong at the Memphis Twilight XC Classic Saturday night. The men's team, led by senior Kigen Chemadi, finished first place out of 12 teams with 17 points, while the women's team finished third out of 14 teams with 63 points.

The Blue Raider men had four runners finish in the top five and five runners in the top ten. Kigen Chemadi came in first overall finishing with a time of 19:27.22, followed by Jacob Choge in second, Thobile Mosito in third and freshman Hillary Kimaiyo in fourth for his college debut. The team finished the four mile race with a total time 1:39:12.81.

In their first race of the season, the Blue Raider women placed third overall, only five points behind second place Ole Miss, with two top five finishers. Sophomores Pamela Kosgei and Joice Jeber led the team, finishing first and second overall. MT finished ahead of Conference USA rival UAB and Southern Miss.

Keith's Thoughts
On the men's team performance…
"The men ran well as a team tonight. (Kigen) Chemadi helped keep the guys together the first three miles and looked great finishing the race. Hillary (Kimaiyo) coming in as a freshman and being able to run up front is going to be valuable later on in the season."

On the women's team performance…
"The women ran well tonight, better than last year at this meet. We still have some work to do, but I'm happy with the outcome."

Up Next
The Blue Raiders travel a short distance to Nashville for their next race at the Vanderbilt Invitational. The race will be hosted by Vanderbilt on Saturday, September 14th at 9 a.m., and will be run on the Vaughn's Gap Course at Percy Warner Park.