Edwin Kurgat and his Under Armour Dark Sky teammates conquered the Camp Mabry course in Austin, Texas, on Thursday morning, winning both the individual and team titles in the Sound Running Cross Championships.
The team victory was pretty much assured for Dark Sky, which compiled 19 points, outdistancing its Under Armour rival, Baltimore Distance, which had 33.
In addition to Kurgat’s overall title in 22:51 over 8K, Dark Sky’s Eduardo Herrera was third in 23:13, Matt Wilkinson sixth in 23:23 and Kasey Knevelbaard 15th in 23:45.
Kurgat, the Kenyan Olympian, was the pre-race favorite, but he had a significant challenge from On Athletics’ Athanas Kioko, a fellow Kenyan. Kioko took out the pace early and kept the pressure on the field, but Kurgat reeled him in.
In the women’s 8K, Utah star Emily Venters (26:02) ran away with the race, beating Hoka NAZ Elite’s Mercy Chelangat by nearly 24 seconds. Katie Izzo, who runs for Adidas and recently moved to Flagstaff to train, was a solid third in 26:31. NAZ Elite’s Paige Wood finished 12th in 27:13.
Chelangat led the chase pack nearly the entire race, and Izzo steadily moved up from sixth at one mile, to second at three miles before Chelangat pulled away.
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