Three compete at NCAA D3 South/Southeast Cross Country Championships
ROME, Ga. – Texas Lutheran Cross Country runners Caleb Calderon, Ashley Rynardand Ciara Rodriguez competed Saturday at the 2018 NCAA Division III South/Southeast Cross Country Championships, hosted by Berry University.
Rynard, a junior, collected a 65th-place overall finish in the women's race with a time of 25 minutes, 3.55 seconds on the 6K course.
Rodriguez registered a finish of 138th overall with a time of 26:47.24.
"This is the highest Ashley has ever placed, and it was one of Ciara's best races as well," said Darlene Holland, TLU's head coach for women's and men's cross country. "The course was slick and muddy in sections due to rain for two days prior, so footing wasn't great and times reflected that. Both ladies ran good, strong races throughout and kicked well at the finish.
Calderon grabbed a 71st-place finish in the men's 8K race. Calderon posted a time of 27:44.76.
"Caleb played catch up the entire race after a mishap in the first half mile," said Holland. "He had good position in the top quarter of the pack, only to have a guy try to make a change of position from one side of the huge group to the other. So that guy ended up going down because somebody caught the back of his leg. About 10 guys went down and Caleb was one of them."
"Caleb started to get up, only to get knocked back down by getting kicked in the jaw by the group that was still racing. He said he felt grass in his mouth before he popped up and tried to get back into the rhythm. He knew when he hit the mile mark he was too far back to get up to where he needed to be to make All Region. He raced hard throughout but was disappointed with how it all played out."
Both Calderon and Rynard received Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference All-Conference honors two weeks ago.
Calderon is a junior out of Austin (Akins). Rynard is a junior from Temple (Temple), and Rodriguez is a junior from Uvalde (Uvalde).