- Results
 
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – West Texas A&M's Ezekiel Kipchirchir earned All-American honors at the 2019 NCAA Division II Men's Cross Country Championships on Saturday in Sacramento, Calif.  The junior placed 12^th overall as the Buffs finished 10^th as a team with 351 points to mark their highest team finish in program history.   
 
Colorado School of Mines claimed their second national championship title in the last five years with 57 total points followed by Adams State, Chico State, Grand Valley State and Northwest Missouri State.  Ezra Mutai of American International set the pace of the men's race as he took hold of the individual title completing the course in 29 minutes, 31.2 seconds.
 
 "I think the top-10 was our goal going in.  We wanted to finally have our first top-10 finish and that was our expectation this year and we did that," said head coach Jake Krolick.  "It's very difficult to be disappointed by meeting our overall team goal.  [Kipchirchir] has had an awesome year.  He had a little bit of an injury that last 10 days so I was very proud of him to see him get out there and still put himself in a spot where the team needed him.  I think that's the big thing to emphasize today.  I think we had some boys that maybe they didn't run the best races of their season, but they ran for the team."
 
The Buffs were led by Kipchirchir as he covered the 10,000-meter course in 30 minutes, 7.8 seconds to became the fourth Buff in program history to earn All-American recognition.  The Eldoret, Kenya native moved up throughout the race to position himself at the front of the pack as he sat 26^th after 2,000-meters before breaking into the top-15 midway through the race.  Kipchirchir's 12^th-place finish at the National Championships was the highest individual finish in WT's cross country program's history.
 
Senior Ahmed Omer was the second Buff to cross the finish line in 68^th as he completed the course in 31 minutes, 12.3 seconds in his first NCAA Championship race followed by Butare Rugenerwa in 94^th at 31:31.5.  Emmanuel Too jumped up 34 spots from last year's national meet to finish 115^th in 31:42.3 while Justin Vigil was the fifth runner for Buffs at 31:49.8 (127^th).  Senior Daniel Haymes rounded out WT's top six as he placed 206^th at 32:45.5.
 
The Buffs will now turn their attention to track as they open the indoor season with a two-day meet starting on December 6^th at the Mel Tjeerdsma Classic in Maryville, Mo.