TUSCALOOSA —- Led by All-American Tyson David who won the individual title, the No. 10 Alabama men’s cross country team claimed the 21st Annual Crimson Classic.
"It’s good to host the home meet and to come away with the win is an added plus," cross country coach Joe Walker said. "Fortunately we got the race right before the thunderstorm hit. It was a good effort today in brutal conditions. It was 84 degrees and 100 percent humidity and those are tough conditions to run a distance race in. I didn’t expect the times to be fast at all and in the end they were, so that shows the level of competition that was here."
David posted the fastest time on the course tonight just before a massive storm rolled into Tuscaloosa. His time of 24:25.90 was enough to best the field of 129.
"Well it’s just the first meet so it’s not really a big deal for me to win," David said. "We just wanted to run as a team and see how we perform as a group."
Newcomers Fred Samoei (3rd) and Moses Kiptoo (4th) clocked times of 24:34.50 and 24:38.80, respectively, as the next two Alabama athletes to cross the line. Andrew Kirwa finished seventh with a time of 24:59.20 and Julius Bor rounded out the top five for the Crimson Tide in 24th and a time of 26:05.60.
Other Alabama finishers were Nathan Corder (30th, 26:22.80), Jeff Palmer (51st, 27:04.90), Alex Seiver (107th, 31:07.40) and Cameron Sherrill (111th, 32:00.90).
In the team standings, Alabama took first with 34 points with the next closest being Tennessee with 55 points. Auburn (76), Georgia Tech (153) and Belmont (156) rounded out the top five teams.
"Every time we line up for a race, we want to win and that’s what we try to do, especially when we’re at home," head track coach Harvey Glance said. "We did a great job 1-5 and our SEC Champion Emmanuel Bor didn’t get a chance to compete. I think we did a good job competing against the teams in the race despite not having Bor. I think we’ll only get better and I’m real proud of these guys effort today."
Alabama will hit the road next weekend as they preview the SEC Championship course at the Pre-SEC Invitational being held in Oxford, Miss on Sept. 26.
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