Cross Country men win 8k title, women sweep top three in Louisville

Saturday, October 4

Louisville, Ky.

Middle Tennessee

Louisville Classic

10/4/2025 2:22:00 PM | Men's Cross Country and Track & Field, Women's Cross Country and Track & Field, Track & Field/Cross Country

By: Jayce Standridge, MTSU Athletic Communications

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Middle Tennessee men's cross country team claimed gold in the 8k, while the women swept the top three spots in the 6k race Saturday morning in Louisville.
The men's squad came out strong from the start, led by reigning All-American Allan Kiplagat, who controlled much of the race before losing a shoe in the final 800 meters, ultimately finishing sixth in 23:50.0.

In his Blue Raider debut, Moses Lekokei surged from 22nd at the 2.1k split to finish ninth overall in 23:53.7. Freshman Solomon Sayo made a dramatic climb from 53rd early on to finish 12th, while Jacinto Gaspar clocked just over 24 minutes to place 16th. Mackdonald Songok rounded out the scoring five in 22nd with a 24:13.2 performance.

The Blue Raiders' 1-5 compression of just 23 seconds was the fastest in the field, helping them edge No. 24 Eastern Kentucky by two points, 60-62, to take the team title. Gabe Allen, Vincent Yegon, Juan Lucas, and Brendan Nagle rounded out the MTSU lineup to finish first out of 32 teams.

On the women's side, Faith Nyathi, Privillege Chikara, and Odilia Jepchumba dominated the 6k, finishing 1-2-3 to sweep the podium. Nyathi claimed her second win of the season (also winning the Memphis Twilight Classic on Aug. 30) with a time of 20:46.5, finishing 24 seconds ahead of the field. Chikara crossed second in 21:10.2, marking a career-best runner-up finish, while Jepchumba finished third in 21:16.3.

Eleanor Towe placed 50th and Hailee Gorham finished 65th to complete the Blue Raiders' scoring five for a third place finish out of 47 teams.

Head Coach Keith Vroman:
"On the men's side, they put together a good team effort. We're making progress towards our goals heading into the championship season.
For the women, the top three (Nyathi, Chikara and Jepchumba) performed at a really high-level today, and that was good to see. We still need to close the gap for our top-5 runners, but happy for Faith, Privillege and Odilia."

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