Published: October 18, 2008 10:20 pm         

Liberty’s Chelanga pushes self to record time in men’s NCAA cross-country race

TERRE HAUTE — The NCAA championships are more than a month away at LaVern Gibson Championship Course and a favorite for the men’s individual title emerged Saturday in Terre Haute in the 8,000-meter white race.

Kenyan Sam Chelanga of Liberty University one-upped training partner and former teammate Josh McDougal’s 8K record by five seconds with a time of 22 minutes, 51.3 seconds. McDougal went on to win the 2007 NCAA title after his Pre-Nationals showing one year ago.

Chelanga was on another level compared to his competition Saturday.

“I was just trying to push myself and test my ability to compete nationally,” he said. “I feel pretty confident and wasn’t that tired at the end of the race, so I fell like I will be able to do well.”

Chelanga still had plenty left in his tank for a strong kick after leading the massive field out to an opening mile of 4:16. He reached the 5K mark in 14:12 and ran the final 2K in an unofficial 2:44.

Excitement quickly built around the course as the sophomore was making it look easy.

“We basically sprint 3K in 8:15 as a training workout and he ran that pace and just kept on going. It’s in the Kenyans genes. He just floats,” said impressed Indiana State fifth-year senior Kyle Walsh, who finished 139th as the Sycamores took 30th place in a field of 11 nationally ranked teams.

ISU coach John McNichols was equally amazed by Chelanga’s performance.

“That was unbelievable. To see somebody go out in a field like this and make it look like a high school senior running against a junior high team, that’s just unbelievable. That’s the national champion we were looking at. No guarantees obviously, but we sure haven’t seen anyone else in the country that looks like that.”

While Chelanga should definitely challenge 2007 runner-up Galen Rupp of defending team champion Oregon, race conditions could be cooler and/or wet when competitors return to Terre Haute for the NCAA Championships on Nov. 24.

Chelanga overshadowed tenth-ranked Stanford’s impressive showing, the Cardinal defeating No. 7 Iona for the top spot 77-123. Garrett Heath and Chris Derrick finished in third and fourth respectively for that squad.

In the first men’s race of the day, sixth-ranked Alabama won the blue race as Tyson David led three top-10 finishers for with his victory. Augustus Maiyo was fifth and Emmanuel Bor ninth. The Crimson Tide held off Northern Arizona by a score 89-113.

“We really wanted to come out and get on the course and in the flow of a large field atmosphere,” coach Joe Walker said. “It gives us some good quality work on the championship course. We’re looking at the gaps and seeing if we can close it down a little bit.”

Alabama hopes to consider itself a championship contender next month, and so does second-ranked Oklahoma State, which chose to have its top runners compete in the men’s open race that concluded a busy day at the course.

Freshman phenom German Fernandez ran a time of 23:34.57, which would have easily placed him in the top 10 of either race.

“I felt like we were able to run really well today,” Fernandez said. “I’m excited to see what our team can do in the future. We have one of the best recruiting classes in Oklahoma State history.”

Michigan was a solid third in the men’s white race to lead the Great Lakes Region performances on the men’s side.

Illinois State was 24th, and the Redbirds were the main team that Indiana State was shooting to beat, with the Missouri Valley Conference championships two weeks away.

Walsh’s time was his best on the team’s home course, and ISU had just a 39-second gap between its top runner, Scott Keeney, and its fifth runner Scott Koressel. And Eric Schulz has battled an illness, and has been ISU’s No. 1 runner in a couple of races this fall.

“In a race like this, we measure ourselves against certain people,” McNichols said. “Indiana, they just had a great race today [taking 8th place], Illinois State, they had a great race. Overall, we just didn’t have the feel, and the guys are disappointed. The conference meet is a concern. We just have to keep after it. I know that we’re able to go better than we’re going.”