Sept. 11, 1999

Complete Results

LUBBOCK, Texas - The Red Raider men and women finished in first place at their opening meet of the season, the Red Raider Invitational, held this morning at Mae Simmons Park in Lubbock. Both teams scored a perfect 15 points to beat teams from Eastern New Mexico University and Wayland Baptist University.

The women beat Eastern New Mexico, which scored 43 points, and Wayland Baptist (62). On the men's side, Wayland Baptist finished second with 40 points.

On the women's side, Leigh Daniel flashed the form that made her a national champion distance runner on the track last season, posting a time of 18:36 to win the women's 5K race. She was followed by teammates Kristen Koppes (2nd, 19:14), Evette Turner (3rd, 19:48) and Tara Hangee (4th, 20:49). Finishing up the scoring for the women was Courtney Nolen, finishing fifth with a time of 21:40.

For the men Boniface Ndungu was the top finisher with a time of 26.34. Ndungu finished second in the race behind Michael Njenga who was running unattached. It was Ndungu's first cross country race as a Red Raider and his time was 32 seconds faster than the teams top time from last season.

Other top finishers for the men were David Leigh (4th, 27.04), Jesse Williams (5th, 27.17) Ryan Cruz (6th, 27.29) and Chris Thomas (8th, 28.47).

The Red Raiders will return to action in two weeks when they travel to Seattle for the Sundodger Invitational, hosted by the University of Washington.