WACO, Texas Seven out of the nine Kansas State men’s competitors set personal-best 8K records at the Big 12 Conference Championships Friday, Oct. 28 in Waco, Texas. Overall, the men finished eighth, while the women’s team finished 10^th. Colorado won both the men’s and the women’s events.

Senior Joe Moore added to his spectacular season for the men’s team as he placed 31^st with a personal-best time of 24:59. Moore broke his previous record of 25:37 that was set on Sept. 17 at the Woody Greeno/Nebraska Invitational.

“If you look at his time today, (Joe Moore) shows significant improvement from earlier in the season,” said head coach Michael Smith. “He has led us all year and competed well all year. He’s just having a great senior season.”

Behind Moore, fellow senior Christian Smith raced one of the better races he has all season, finishing 51^st with a time of 25:40. K-State’s No. 2 through No. 5 runners all finished within 18 seconds of each other. The result proved to land K-State higher in the standings than they had originally intended.

“The closer your No. 5 runner is to your No. 1 runner will always benefit you better,” commented Smith. “Our runners all competed at their highest level today, and it just happened to be that they finished very close to one another. Their efforts allowed us to beat (ninth-place) Texas Tech.”

Sophomore Stephanie Lavin set the pace for the women’s team as she brought home a 55^th-place finish and a time of 23:07 on the 6K course. K-State also welcomed the efforts of senior Christian Lara and freshman Liliani Mendez. Lara finished 60^th on the day with a time of 23:21, while Mendez crossed the line in 67^th in her first race of the season.

“We were able to run a full lineup today on the women’s side,” said Smith. “Even though we haven’t been healthy all season, there were some good individual performances today. Stephanie Lavin ran a good race for us as our No. 1 runner.”

The K-State cross country teams will take some time off in preparing for the Midwest Regional Championships held Saturday, Nov. 12 in Iowa City, Iowa.

K-State Men’s Finishers                                                                  

1. Joe Moore (31)               24:59                                                     

2. Christian Smith (51)        25:40                                                     

3. Colin Swaney (57)          25:51                                                     

4. Alex Umberger (60)        25:54                                                     

5. HIral Bhakta (62)            25:58                                                     

6. Matt Swedlund (80)        26:33                                                     

7. Danny Schneider (83)     26:45                                                     

8. Casey Johnson (87)       26:55                                                     

9. Ben DeLay (92)              27:25

K-State Women's Finishers

1. Stephanie Lavin (55)       23:07

2. Christina Lara (60)          23:21

3. Liliani Mendez (67)         23:33

4. Morgan Bonds (72)         23:40

5. Emily Dittemore (74)       23:50

6. Jana Gwinn (83)             24:16

7. Eleanor Burton (94)        25:24

8. Breana Yost (96)            25:47