September 14, 2023

The Central Arizona College Cross Country teams participated in the Southern Showcase, hosted by Jacksonville State in Alabama last week.  The course will simulate the NJCAA National Championships, which will be held in November.

The Vaqueros claimed 11th place honors out of 32 teams.  Most of the schools participating at the meet were NCAA D1, D2, and NAIA Instiutions.  Major NCAA D1 schools in attendance was Auburn, Alabama, Ole Miss, Kentucky, and Memphis.

Top finisher for the Vaqueros went to Julian Campos, who toured the course in 24:43 which was good enough for 38th place overall.  There were 293 finishers in this years race.  Julian came within one second of his 8k PR, which he hit near the end of last cross country season.

"I'm proud of Julian and the rest of the men today."  Stated Coach Jon Harmon.  "We arrived late the night before the race, slept only a handful of hours, and were back at it the morning so we weren't as fresh as I had hoped." 

"Julian came close to his PR which is outstanding this early in the season!  Asante ran a PR today too!  And the rest of the men all ran their first 8k, so I was pleased with their performance."

The remaining Vaqueros finished as follows:

Samuel Gilson (25:04) placed 62nd overall and PR.

Micah Slivers (25:42) placed 95th overall and PR.

Jordan Myers (25:53) 102nd overall and PR.

Asante Maez (26:01) 109th overall and PR.

Daniel Biakeddy (26:24) 132nd overall and PR.

Seth Leslie (27:32) 198th overall and PR.

Luca Onyejiaka (28:01) 215th overall and PR. 

The men will be back in action on September 30th at the ACCAC Conference Championships, which is being held by Central Arizona College.  The men will race at 8am followed by the women at 8:45am.