Rotich Reaches NCAA Championship for Third Straight Year

Friday, November 9

College Station, Texas

9:15 am

Tulane University

NCAA South Central Regional

Rotich Reaches NCAA Championship for Third Straight Year

Nov 9, 2018 | Cross Country

Men's Results | Women's Results

COLLEGE STATION, Texas – In a familiar race at a familiar venue, Emmanuel Rotich produced a familiar result.

Tulane's senior took fourth overall at the NCAA South Central Regional at Texas A&M on Friday morning, qualifying for the NCAA Cross Country Championship for the third consecutive year.

The 10K race, held at the Dale Watts Cross Country Course, was the site of Rotich's regional victory last year as well as a regular-season race this season that Rotich won. While he came up just seconds shy of the win on Friday, Rotich did enough to earn an individual berth in the NCAA Championship on November 17 in Madison, Wisconsin.

The Green Wave men came in 13th place as a team with 351 points, and the Tulane women
placed 20th as a team with a score of 506 points on a 6K course.

Rotich ran with the lead group the entire race, never straying more than five seconds behind the leader at any of the split times. Rotich was officially in 14th place through two kilometers, sixth after 4.2 kilometers and still in sixth after 6.3 kilometers.

At the 7.7K mark, Rotich made his move. He climbed four places in that stretch, taking over second place with just 2.3 kilometers left to go. At the race's end, he had slipped slightly to fourth but still finished two seconds ahead of fifth place to make the cutoff for the national championship. His final time was 31:41.7.

Also having a strong race for the Green Wave in his first regional was freshman Evans Kipchumba. The Kenya native hung with the lead group through the 4K mark and eventually crossed the finish line in 33:36.7.

Carlos Zervigon took 91st in 34:28.4 to conclude his junior year, Joshua Cheruyot was 99th in 34:42.3 and Pierce Hill capped the Tulane scoring with a 118th-place finish in 35:16.8.

Patrick Dougherty was 120th in 35:22.2 and Tom Coe rounded out the Tulane runners with a 147th-place showing in 36:47.0.

As she has been in every race she has run this year, Mckenzie Melius was Tulane's top finisher on Friday morning for the women. Melius was in 67th place through two kilometers and moved up to 59th through 2.9K. At the 4.1-kilometer mark, Melius had slid up four more spots to 55th. By the time the finish line neared, Melius moved up another two spots for her 53rd-place finish. She crossed the line in 22:19.0.

Behind Melius was junior Mary Catherine Stovall, who took 90th in 23:05.1. Reid Belanger was 119th in 23:59.2, Rachel Maue was 140th in 24:52.5 and Nicole Phaneuf ended her freshman year with a 142nd-place finish in 24:58.5.