Guilford College cross-country runner Derek Kosgei takes ODAC title

LYNCHBURG, Va. – Guilford College’s Derick Kosgei (Eldoret, Kenya/Kipkabus
Central (East Central)) captured the school’s first Old Dominion Athletic
Conference (ODAC) individual cross country title Saturday. The junior’s
eight-kilometer time of 25:41 edged Virginia Wesleyan College’s Sean Whitson
by four seconds and helped Guilford place a school-record second in the
eight-team meet.

Lynchburg College placed five runners among the top-11 and won the team
title with 34 points. Guilford, with four harriers among the top-16, totaled
64 points, followed by Virginia Wesleyan (76), Bridgewater College (89) and
Roanoke College (122).

Washington and Lee University won the women’s race by one point over
Lynchburg, 46-47. Guilford placed sixth among the seven teams.

Kosgei led for most of the men’s race, contested under sunny skies on the
grounds of the Presbyterian Home. He won his school-record third race of the
season and his winning time (25:41) is second only to his school-record
25:07 eight-kilometer clocking. Kosgei again held off Whitson in an ODAC
title race as he edged the Marlins’ top runner by 0.19 seconds to win the
league’s 5,000-meter outdoor title last spring.

Guilford freshman Chad Norton (Walled Lake, Mich./Walled Lake) joined Kosgei
as a First Team All-ODAC honoree by virtue of his sixth-place finish in
26:43. Quakers’ rookie David Cason (Clemmons, N.C./West Forsyth) earned
Second Team All-ODAC recognition with a 14th-place effort in a personal-best
27:29. Kosgei, Norton and Cason are Guilford’s first All-ODAC cross country
honorees.

On the women’s side, Guilford freshman Taylor Stokes (Advance, N.C./Davie)
paced the Quakers’ performance with a 23rd-place time of 25:48. Teammate
Anne Mogavero (Evansville, Ind./Reitz Memorial), a member of the tennis team
running her first college race, finished five places later in 26:08.

Both cross country teams will run at the NCAA Division III South/Southeast
Regional Championships in Memphis, Tenn., Nov. 14. Guilford’s men’s team is
ranked eighth in the current United States Track and Field and Cross Country
Coaches’ Association South/Southeast Region Rankings.

Dave Walters
Guilford College Athletics