ACU men capture regional title

Naimadu, Mwamba win respective individual titles

JOPLIN, Mo. -- The Abilene Christian men dominated Saturday's NCAA Division II South Central Region championships, capturing each of the top five spots on their way to their fifth straight regional championship.

The Wildcats finished the meet with a perfect 15 points, easily outdistancing second-place Central Missouri State, which finished with 73 points.  The ACU men, who have finished second at each of the last four NCAA Division II national championship meets and are ranked No. 2 in the nation this year, will try to win the school's first cross country national title Nov. 20 in Evansville, Ind.

The ACU women, meanwhile, finished fourth at the regional meet, but qualified three of their five runners for the individual national championships, including regional winner Adeh Mwamba.

ACU's Nicodemus Naimadu won the men's individual championship, covering the 10-kilometer course in 29:58.40, almost one minute better than runner-up and teammate Bernard Manirakiza, who finished in 30:52.00.  Martin O'Kello was third in 31:02.90, followed by Laurent Ngiramakaro in fourth at 31:10.90 and Lucky Hadebe was fifth in 31:42.80.  Vincent Morogah was 14th in 32:39.00 to give ACU six all-region runners.

Central Missouri State won the women's team title with 71 points, followed by Truman State (Mo.) with 85 points, Pittsburg State (Kan.) with 91 points and ACU in fourth with 93 points.

Mwamba won the individual title, covering the 6-kilometer course in 21:34.80.  Her ACU teammate Trina Cox was third in 21:53.40, and ACU's Olha Kryv'yak was fourth in 22:05.50.  All three ACU runners qualified for the national meet and earned all-region honors.