COMPLETE INDIVIDUAL RESULTS
COMPLETE TEAM RESULTS
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – Eastern Kentucky University junior Wesley Ruttoh finished 87th out of 250 runners at the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships on Monday afternoon, covering the 10K course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in a time of 30:49.5.
The Bomet, Kenya native, who was expecting to finish in the top-40, was spiked from behind in the first mile of the race and fell down. He was able to recover, however, and finished near the top third of the best cross country runners in the country.
“I tried to catch back up after falling down, but I was never fully able to,” Ruttoh said. “Although I am disappointed right now, it was an exciting experience and I hope to have another shot at it next year.”
Liberty’s Sam Chelanga – the only runner to beat Ruttoh at the Southeast Regionals two weeks ago - easily won the men’s race with a time of 28:41.3, defeating his nearest competitor by 25 seconds.
Oklahoma State won the team national championship, narrowly defeating Oregon by 16 points.
Ruttoh became the first Colonel to qualify for the NCAA Championships since Jacob Korir and Joseph Maina did so in 2007 when he finished second at the Southeast Regionals on Nov. 14 in a time of 30:04.46.
Ruttoh, a transfer from Butler Community College (the same college that produced Maina), was named the 2009 OVC Male Cross Country Runner of the Year after winning the OVC Championships on Oct. 31 with a time of 25:39.24 and leading the men’s team to its fourth consecutive conference title.
He was the OVC’s lone representative at the NCAA Championships on Monday.