Red Raiders Head to Mizzou Challenge

LUBBOCK, Texas – One week after a strong home performance at the TTU Open, the Texas Tech cross country team will depart for another meet. The Red Raiders will head to Columbia, Mo., for the Missouri-hosted Mizzou Challenge.

Head coach Jon Murray is looking forward to his squad to be tested again.

"It's going to be a fun event because we'll get to see some teams we don't normally run against," Murray said. "It's a new course, too, so that will add to it."

Another factor to this weekend's challenge will be the quick turnaround from Tech's last race. The team will only have had five days of rest by the time they run again Friday, something unique of Murray's usual scheduling which has the team race every other weekend.

"Going back-to-back is hard," Murray said. "After a hard training day Tuesday, the rest of the week is about recovery and getting them ready to run again. I think they'll respond well."

What brings confidence to a positive Tech response is the result of last weekend's home meet, where the women convincingly defended the home course and the men took second. The women's group especially stood out to Murray, who was not short of compliments for the way his team ran.

"This was one of the best group running efforts by a Texas Tech team in a long time," he said after Saturday's win.

It's a home meet win for the women! ??

??#WreckEm?? pic.twitter.com/0gCpTdrMF4
— Texas Tech Track & Field (@TexasTechTF) September 21, 2019

He continued on this week: "When they run as a team, they encourage each other and help pace each other. It was tremendous. As a group, they were running faster than they would as individuals. The plan is usually for them to stay together for the first mile, but they were easily together for two-and-a-half, which was beneficial to all of them."

Leading the team as a whole was Nokuthula Dlamini, who in her first race since 2017 finished third. Seselia Dala was on her heels in fifth with a 5k PR of 18:33.70. Overall, the top-14 included seven Lady Raiders.

The men's team was led by Cornelius Kiprotich, whose 26:31.60 was good for third individually. The men's squad will look to improve on pacing and times in Missouri.

Tech's competition in Columbia will include: Drake, Illinois State, Missouri, North Florida, Saint Louis, SEMO, Southern Illinois, Texas A&M, UAB and UMKC. The meet will begin at 5 p.m. with the women's 6k, followed by the men's 8k at 5:30 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

Seselia Dala

Nokuthula Dlamini

Cornelius Kiprotich

Texas Tech University Athletics