November 24, 2009

Cowley women win Half Marathon Classic, men place second

Just one week after nabbing top-five national finishes at the NJCAA Cross Country National Championships, the Cowley College men and women’s cross country teams were well represented at the NJCAA Half Marathon Classic held Saturday in Overland Park.

In fact, the Lady Tiger runners stole the show as Robin Ray, Cecilia Burley, and Leigh Ann Omarkhail helped Cowley finish first ahead of El Paso (Texas) Community College.

Cowley’s runners were competing against many of the same schools they saw at the national championships, including Iowa Central and South Plains College, which placed second and third at the national meet.

“This is extra special for these ladies and just tops the season they had in cross country,” Cowley head coach Vince DeGrado said. “For them to come out here and beat teams that beat them at Nationals was pretty special.”

Ray placed third in the 13.1-mile race with a time of 1:25.37, while Burley (1:27.46) finished sixth. Each were named NJCAA All-American’s at the Half Marathon Classic.

Omarkhail (1:30.03), who finished ninth, played a pivotal role in Cowley winning the classic.

After running nearly 13 miles it came down to a one-point difference between Leigh Ann and El Paso's No. 3 runner.

“The last four miles I could tell Leigh Ann was gaining on their No. 3 runner so I just kept being as positive as possible with Leigh Ann and she inched closer with each mile,” DeGrado said. “The last mile she had to make up around 20 seconds, and with 200 meters left in the race, Leigh Ann sprinted by their No. 3 (runner) locking the win and allowing the ladies team to be declared national champs.”

DeGrado could not have been prouder of his runners.

“The field had a slew of talented runners from this years competition and with a half marathon, so much can go wrong in a race like this,” DeGrado said. “This women’s season has surpassed anything I expected from them. It’s great to end the season on a high note heading into the indoor track season.”

In the men's race, Cowley’s runners went out very conservative and through the half way point of the race we were sitting in about 40th place, while the team was in about seventh place.

However, that conservative start came back to help them as Phillip Banowetz (1:13.57, 11th place), Isbek Salinas (1:14.12, 12th place), Cianan Kutil (1:14.58, 15th place), and Brice Irving (1:15.50, 18th place) started to move up with five miles to go and passed several runners.

“It was really fun to watch those guys move through all of the runners like they were standing still,” DeGrado said. “For them to come in second place after starting that slow really showed how fit they were. They didn't stop moving ever and a lot of them never were passed. This was a good ending to our season.”

Tyson Christensen rounded out Cowley runners by placing 36th with a time of 1:19.31.

This was the first time in school history that Cowley took part in the Half-Marathon race.