Top 10 finishes for Masai and Sanabria
Sophomores Fiona Masai and Cesar Sanabria continued to lead the Grizzlies, as they competed at University of South Dakota's Tim Young Invitational Saturday in Vermillion, S.D.
Masai, who ran a personal best time of 18 minutes and 31 seconds the previous week at the Fort Hays meet, again posted one of her top 5k times with an 18:42 in Vermillion. Throughout the race, Masai ran with the lead group of runners before settling in and finishing in sixth place.
Butler Coach Jeff Becker said, "I was real impressed with Fiona's race again." "I thought she competed well against mostly NCAA Divison I competition."
The Butler women also had Abiane Collymore and Adrian McCollum run in the race. Collymore ran a time of 21:31 for 30th place and McCollum crossed the line in 24:04 for 36th.
In the men's race Sanabria finished ninth in 27:05 on the eight kilometer course, his second straight top 10 finish. His time was nearly a minute behind former Grizzly Benson Langat who currently runs for South Dakota and ran a 26:09 in sixth.
Becker felt that the men had "some up and down performances." Freshman Eric Minjarez and sophomore Coty Williams were two athletes that Becker thought had "great" races. Minjarez finished fifth on the team for the second straight meet and Williams was the sixth Grizzly to finish. Overall Minjarez finished in 24th place with a 28:42 and Williams ran a 29:25 to finish 27th.
The other men who ran for Butler were Israel Mendoza in 28:30 in 21st place, Fidel Munoz in 28:36 in 22nd, Drake Brown in 28:40 in 23rd, Dale Nuckolls in 29:28 in 28th, Thomas Hofstetter in 29:35 in 29th, Taylor Parker in 31:09 in 37th, Carlos Galindo in 31:40 in 38th, Adam Kelsey in 32:02 in 40th and Thomas Groom in 32:31 in 41st.
Butler's next meet will be when it hosts the Ollie Isom Invitational at Wartick Ranch this Friday.