By Nate Perry, TTU Sports Information
NEW ORLEANS, La. – After an outstanding fourth-place showing at the Commodore Classic, the Tennessee Tech men's cross country team caught the eyes of the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, coming in at No. 8 in the South Region rankings released Monday.
"I'm just happy – elated – for this ranking because these guys really worked hard for it," said head coach Wayne Angel. "I think if we keep at it we can improve our place even more. For right now, I'm thrilled with being ranked and getting some recognition, but I think the best is yet to come."
The No. 8 ranking is the highest in Tennessee Tech cross country history, and marks the first time the Golden Eagles have broken double digits.
The previous high was 10th, which Tech reached once in 2017 (Week 3) and three times in 2016 (Weeks 2, 3 and 4).
As an unranked team after Week 1, Tech's vault to No. 8 was the largest jump made by any team in the USTFCCCA's nine regions.
Sammy Kipkirui was the team's top finisher at the Commodore, taking sixth place with an eight-kilometer time of 25-minutes, 7.7-seconds.
Following close behind were teammates Brannon Cheplak and Benard Sigei, who finished 13th and 18th, respectively, with times of 25:20.2 and 25:35.3.
Ababu Mohamed and Gabriel Kiprono were TTU's all-important fourth and fifth runners, respectively. Mohamed was 31st overall at 26:02.4, while Kiprono was 36th with a time of 26:09.1.
After all was said and done, the Golden Eagles managed an excellent spread for an early-season meet with just 30 places and 1:01.4 separating the No. 1 and No. 5 runners.
Here is the Week 2 USTFCCCA South Region men's poll in its entirety:
1. Alabama (Last Week: 1)
2. Middle Tennessee (LW: 2)
3. Ole Miss (LW: 3)
4. Florida State (LW: 4)
5. Tennessee (LW: 5)
6. Florida (LW: 6)
7. Belmont (LW: 7)
8. Tennessee Tech (LW: UR)
9. Florida A&M (LW: UR)
10. East Tennessee State (LW: 15)
11. Georgia Tech (LW: 9)
12. Lipscomb (LW: 8)
13. Georgia (LW: 10)
14. Memphis (LW: 11)
15. North Florida (LW: 12)
Photo by Whitney Fountain
