On November 10th members of the women’s and men’s cross country team traveled to Garden City, Kan. to run in the NJCAA cross country nationals.

“At the national championship both girls and the guys team can only have seven runners and the top five of each team are the ones who actually count for the point total to compare to other teams and see who wins,” said sophomore Mariana Duenes-Gomez.

As for the point system, the runner who comes in first place receives one point, the second place runner receives two points and so on. The team with the least amount of points wins.

This year the women’s team placed sixth with 148 points and the men placed seventh with 135 points.

During races the women run five kilometers (3.10 miles) and the men run eight kilometers (4.97 miles.)

The seven women that attended nationals in Garden City were sophomores Mariana Duenes-Gomez, Amber Gloria, Karen Perez, Esmeralda Rodriguez and freshmen Ryiann Araujo, Laina Kanuho and Emisela Martines.

“I feel like there was most definitely room for improvement,” said sophomore Amber Gloria. “I was actively passing people and moving up during the whole race so (I felt like) it was a good performance for the type of course.”

This is Gloria’s second year here at Allen and her favorite memory is when the team raced at Missouri Southern Stampede and Gloria broke 19 minutes in the 5k.

The seven men that attended nationals were sophomores Josh Clethen, Adrian Pishny, Raul Sanchez, Yoel Yoel and freshmen Mitchell Dervin, Joshua Doria and Garrett Gannt.

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“I wasn’t overall very satisfied with my results but considering how cold, hilly, windy and elevated the course was, I feel okay with everything,” said Clethen.

Clethen is a sophomore this year and was very glad that he was able to compete for Coach Vince DeGrado one last year.

“My favorite memory from this year is winning the Little Rock Invitational in October,” Clethen said.

This past race was the last one for the men and the women which means they move on to indoor track in January.