Bruin Distance accepts Central Nebraska Challenge

KEARNEY, Neb. -- The Bruin distance track team traveled to Kearney for Saturday's Central Nebraska Challenge hosted by UNK and Hastings College. Good early season conditions with temperatures in the 50's, sunny skies, and light winds greeted competitors from fifteen area schools representing all NCAA divisions and the NAIA.

As he did last week, Collin Kotz got the Bruin men started with the highest finish of the day as he ran to a sixth-place finish in the 3,000-meter steeplechase. His time of 10:01.33 was a personal and Bruin best, cutting almost twenty seconds from his run at Wayne State a week ago.

Richard Marcoux also lowered his own school record in the 800-meter run set a week ago with a 1:58.98 clocking, placing him 14th overall in the very talented field. Aaron Newton joined Marcoux at 800 meters and was just off his outdoor personal best, finishing in 2:04.79.

Marcoux would come back later in the afternoon and lead four Bruin entries in the 1500 meters. Marcoux was 25th with his time of 4:18.36. Next across the line for the Bruins was Edrei Murillo, cutting seven seconds from last week's effort at Wayne to record a 4:24.02. Kaleb Wooten ran his first race of the season in 4:29.63, while Kotz came back after his steeplechase to lower his 1500-meter season best by eight seconds in 4:31.99.

For the Bruin women, the 1500-meter run was the day's top event. Madison Nelson and Alicia Rivera Camargo recorded the two fastest times in Bruin history, both eclipsing Lorena Ramirez's mark from 2021. Nelson, dropping down in distance from her usual events, lowered the 1500 record to 5:12.20 in the third heat. In heat number four, Rivera Camargo also ran under the old record but was just shy of Nelson's run as she crossed in 5:13.92.

Caroline Feig concluded the entries for the Bruin women, running 800 meters in a season-best 2:49.09.

Head Coach Craig Christians: "There are a lot of fitness gains to be made, but we are off to a good start. We have five weeks to conference and if we can maintain the consistency we've had up to this point, we're going to continue to set personal bests. It's challenging to compete with the teams we've seen the last two weeks at Wayne and today in Kearney and again next week when we go to South Dakota, but that's the competition we need to face if we want to continue to elevate this program."

The Bruins travel to the University of South Dakota on Friday, April 7, for USD's Early Bird Invitational. The invitational features a "distance carnival" schedule, with all of the distance events occurring consecutively on Friday afternoon.