(Geneva, IL.) – Five Waubonsee Community College Cross Country runners qualified for the NJCAA Division II National Championship Meet this past Saturday. Men's runners Luis Baez, Marcos Corral and Russell Abner each finished in the top-15 at the Region 4 Meet held at the Settler's Hill Cross Country Course in Geneva. On the women's side Jade Unzueta and Alexandra Lemke also earned berths to the Nationals, which will be held on Saturday, November 8, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. It will be the four consecutive year that head coach Eric Baron and his staff will take multiple Chiefs' runners to the National Meet.

Led by the aforementioned trio, the Chiefs' men's team finished a distant second to Moraine Valley Community College on the day. Baez, a sophomore from Sandwich High School, finished eighth overall in the men's 8K race to lead Waubonsee. Corral was right behind him in ninth place as he held off four other competitors in the final home stretch. Abner came in 13^th overall to give the Chiefs three All-Region honorees. Waubonsee's Marco Silva finished 18^th and Lucas Fiedler placed 24^th to round out the Chiefs' scoring. Daniel Strnad finished in 29^th place and Ryan Hendrix rounded out Waubonsee's participants by placing 37^th overall. Sauk Valley Community College's Charles Link unconnected from the pack early on and won the race with a time of 27:02, a full minute ahead second place finisher Andrew Leon from Moraine Valley.

A freshman from Kaneland High School, Unzueta paced Waubonsee's women's runners by placing ninth overall in a time of 22:59. Lemke, a sophomore from Plano, went out fast at the start and was at the front of the pack for the first couple of kilometers before falling back. She eventually finished in 10^th place to also earn All-Region honors and advance to the National Meet. Another sophomore, Katherine Ball, turned in one of her best races of the year and placed 24^th overall. Teammate Emma Perry was right behind her, crossing the finish line four seconds later. Imisioulwa Adekoya finished 33^rd to round out Waubonsee's competitors as the Chiefs finished third as a team. Led by freshman sensation Eva Zimmerman, Moraine Valley also easily captured the women's team title with a score of 18 points. Zimmerman shattered the Settler's Hill course record of 20:45 by turning in a blistering time of 19:57 to win the women's 5K race by nearly a minute and half.