OPSU News

Veronica Lozano

Johana Korir

**For Immediate Release** OPSU Runners Compete in Heartland Championships By Scott Puryear of OPSU Sports on 10/26/2009 Goodwell, Okla. — Student athletes representing the Oklahoma Panhandle State University men’s and women’s cross country teams were in Dallas over the weekend to participate in the Heartland Conference meet hosted by Dallas Baptist University.

In women’s competition, over sixty runners from nine schools participated over the 5k course and Veronica Lozano was the top finisher for OPSU in 37th place with a time of 28:13. Other OPSU finishers were Rachael Beck (31:29), Amanda Boggs (35:22), Arlene Soto (37:05), and Kayla Joos (37:29).

The men ran an 8k course and over 50 runners from seven schools were in the race. The top finisher for the Aggies was Johana Korir (28:05) in 17th place. The other OPSU finishers were Jesus Uribe (29:11), Quentin Williams (30:10), Martin Baeza (32:36), Kevin Geofroy (32:41), and Shaquille Redhair (36:32).

Victor Esparza coaches both the men’s and women’s teams and said the squad continued to improve over the season and noted that many of them consistently attended cross country workouts while also practicing for other sports. Esparza said the men’s team worked extremely hard toward their goal of making the Regionals but fell just short, and added that he felt that everyone did a great job. He also looks for bigger things next fall with most members of the teams returning.

###