Last weekend two Butler cross country athletes traveled to Ida, Ill. for the NJCAA Cross Country National Championships. Region VI champion Fiona Masai made the trip to Ida to compete in the women's race and Cesar Sanabria in the men's race.
Masai capped her season off by earning All-American honors with her ninth place finish. She ran a time of 18 minutes and 57 seconds on the 5k course. Her season comes to a close with top 10 finishes in each of the eight races she competed in this season. Of those she was the champion twice and also finished runner-up twice.
Butler Coach Jeff Becker said, "These honors top off great sophomore season for Fiona."
Sanabria who has also had a promising sophomore season came into the men's race with high expectations. However, the race did not play out the way he hoped.
Through the first 2k of the 8k race Sanabria was running in the top 10. Then shortly after the 2k mark Becker was waiting to for Sanabria to cross him again on the course. Becker said, "Me and Coach White (Assistant Coach James White) were waiting on him and he never came." So the Butler coaches back tracked on the course only to find out that Cesar had stepped in a hole and turned his ankle. Sanabria tried to keep racing but was unable to continue.
Becker said, "I feel bad for him because he did everything he was supposed to do all season and was running a great race."