Aug. 27, 2008

LUBBOCK, Texas - Texas Tech's men's and women's cross country teams will be headed to Cloudcroft, N.M. to host the Cloudcroft Triangle meet this Fri., Aug. 26, with Wayland Baptist and Eastern New Mexico competing.

The women's squad returns 10 with seven of them being letterwinners from a team that placed second at the Big 12 Championship and 18th, fifth at the Mountain Regional and 18th at the NCAA Championships. The key returner is two-time defending NCAA cross country champion Sally Kipyego. She enters her senior campaign with seven NCAA titles, having never lost a cross country meet in her illustrious career.

Gladys Kipsang, Asia Diaz and Michelle Guzman are returners who will be key contributors again this season. Junior transfer Lillian Badaru should provide help as she placed second at last season's NJCAA cross country meet. Freshman Brintney Green, an all-state performer in cross country last season will make her debut as well.

The men's squad has 10 returners with seven of them being letterwinners. The team will be led by junior Silas Kemboi and sophomore Gilbert Limo. Kemboi finished 29th at the Big 12 Championships and 40th at the Mountain Regional and Limo placed 29th at the Big 12 Championship in his first season of competition. Other letterwinners returning include Eric Ayala, Cory Higgins, Logan Culotta and Jake Szot.

The men will receive help from several newcomers including Zach Dawson a two-time all-state cross country runner at Big Spring high school and Nathan Milles a transfer from Alabama-Huntsville.

The Red Raiders will be running at the Lincoln National Forest in Cloudcroft, N.M. The women will start at 4 p.m. and run three miles and the men will run four miles at 4:45 CDT.