Keter claims cross country national title

Men's Results   Women's Results
LAWRENCE, Kan. – Some things about Wayland Baptist's cross country season have been a bit of a see-saw this year. One thing has not: Benard Keter.

Such was the case again Saturday at the NAIA Cross Country National Championships at Rim Rock Farms as Wayland's men's and women's teams hit somewhat of a lull. Keter, meanwhile, soared!

Keter won the men's individual title, topping a field of 320 runners to become Wayland's second cross country national champion.

"That was exciting," WBU coach Brian Whitlock said. "We believed in him being the champion, and he was able to go out and get it done. Any time you can win a one-shot deal like this with 320 runners in the race, it's pretty good."

Unfortunately, Keter's outstanding performance was about the only thing Whitlock could brag about on an overcast and drizzly day where temperatures were in the mid 40s. The coach had high hopes for both Wayland teams, but both struggled as the WBU women, ranked 13^th, placed 14^th out of 38 teams while the 18^th-ranked Pioneer men came in 25^th out of 36 schools.

Oklahoma City University repeated as men's champion while British Columbia won on the women's side. Oklahoma Baptist's women finished sixth, followed by Oklahoma City in 15^th (12 points behind Wayland) and Texas Wesleyan in 28^th. OBU's Hannah Fields came in second, some 30 seconds behind winner Maria Bernard of British Columbia.

"Outside of Benard, I thought we were not very good at all. I felt we really underachieved," Whitlock said.

Keter, though, may have made up for it.

Just a sophomore, Keter joined Kennedy Kithuka as the only Wayland cross country runners to win national titles. Kithuka did it both his freshman and sophomore years in 2010 and 2011 before he transferred to Texas Tech.

"Benard's in great company," Whitlock said. "This is a great accomplishment."

A Kenyan native who transferred this year from Cloud County Community College (Kan.), Keter completed the 8k course in 24 minutes, 36.40 seconds, winning by just under five seconds over senior DJ Flores of Eastern Oregon. It was a closer race than Keter – who has won five of his six competitions this season and has never finished behind another NAIA runner – is used to, and it had Whitlock on edge.

"I saw him at the 2-mile mark and he was with the leaders, a group of about eight guys," Whitlock said. "Our strategy was for him to really put it on them when he got to the hills, so when I saw him again at about the 6k mark he had a nice lead of 15-20 seconds."

But Keter began hurting a little, Whitlock said.

"I got really scared with about 800 meters to go. He was running by himself into the wind, and he looked like he was spent. Two guys were closing fast, and Benard kept looking back so I knew he was hurting. I saw him with about 400 meters to go and they were pretty close."
That's when Keter dug down deep.

"From that point on I don't think he looked back again. He looked forward and finished hard. I felt pretty confident when he turned the corner with 200 meters to go.

"But there was definitely quite a bit of nervousness that last 800. It was scary and exciting."

Whitlock said Keter "beat some good guys. It was a good field. Benard was pumped up.

"It was an awesome individual performance. Benard has trained really hard and worked really hard and deserves to win. It's a great feeling when a guy goes out and accomplishes what he set out to do. My hat goes off to him."

Beyond Keter, the news wasn't as positive for Wayland.

"From my 2-5 runners, just about everything that could go wrong, did," Whitlock said.

Wayland's second finisher behind Keter, senior Damarius Lowery, came in 137^th place (26:46).

"Damarius ran OK, but he made some in-race mistakes," Whitlock said. "He got out too hard and then backed off too much, so there was a big yo-yo effect. If you want to have a good national meet, you can't have that yo-yo."

Freshman Jason Rowe, who according to Whitlock was slowed by "a huge blister," was next in 222^nd place (27:29), followed by junior Ulisses Lopez (259^th, 28:06) and sophomore Cameron Woodberry (293^rd, 28:57).

Whitlock said Woodberry, who has struggled with some health issues this season, collapsed with about 400 meters left.

"He probably lost 100 places," the coach said.

But even that resulted in a nice story as two fellow runners stopped to help Woodberry.

"One guy (Tyler Hartley) from Mount Mercy (Iowa) picked him up and carried him almost to the finish line," Whitlock said. "Then both of those guys fell with about 20 meters to go, but another guy from another university helped them.

"It was pretty neat to watch unfold," he added. "That's a great testimony to the NAIA; that's why I love the NAIA. That showed what character is all about."

WBU's sixth and seventh runners were freshmen Randy Borden (297^th, 29:11) and Diego Gomez (312^th, 31:15).

"If we don't have some of those problems we finish about where we're ranked," Whitlock said. "It's a little disappointing to not finish with your best performance, but still, 25^th in the country isn't bad."

In the women's 5k, Wayland's top finisher was senior Selene Lopez, who ran a time of 18:38 to finish 33^rd, missing all-American honors by only three spots. Lopez was in 15^th place with 1½ miles left, but Whitlock said she struggled down the stretch.

"Selene ran OK, but she's beaten a slew of those girls (who finished ahead of her) on the track," he said. "For her career we just have not been able to get over the hump of cross country. You'll see a different runner at the national championships on the track, but in cross country I think she has a little bit of a mental block."

Sophomore Sarah Jerotich finished 65^th (19:06), followed by freshmen Catherine Gitahi (99^th, 19:22), April Padilla (105^th, 19:25) and Samantha Jones (238^th, 20:26).

Whitlock was left scratching his head by Jerotich, who finished sixth here last year.

"We felt like she was a step behind all year, and it showed again today. She just struggled," the coach said. "Catherine has been up-and-down all year and she was up-and-down today."

He said Padilla performed the best of all of Wayland's women.

"I thought she ran the best out of all the girls. As a freshman I thought she ran a good race. I also thought Samantha had her best race of the year, but we were still expecting her to do better than she did."

Senior Melissa Cejas (250^th, 20:36) and freshman Monica Alanis (318^th, 22:35) closed out the field for WBU.

Whitlock said although the WBU women placed about where they are ranked, "from my expectations and from what I know of this group we underachieved. To not run very well and finish 14^th in the country, a lot of people would be excited with that, but I know what this group is capable of. We saw it at conference (where they were co-champions with OBU). We just didn't get it done today.

"It's a tough pill to swallow today because there's not a meet in two weeks to redeem ourselves."

Overall, Whitlock said he is disappointed in the team performances at nationals "but proud of the kids and the season we had. We had eight all-conference runners, the women were co-conference champions, both teams got to nationals, and we have a national champion individual.

"Now we'll start getting excited for track."