Junior Robert Cheseret of the No. 4 Arizona men's cross country team reaped his share of rewards after yesterday's 10,000-meter race at the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind.
Cheseret, who finished eighth out of 253 runners with a time of 29:51, was named an All-American for the second year in a row for his achievements this season in which he won the individual titles at the Pacific 10 Conference Championship and the NCAA Western Regional.
After a huge team win in the latter event Nov. 12, in which the Wildcats snapped Stanford's streak of 10 consecutive Western Regional titles, Arizona placed 10th out of 31 teams and finished with 384 points.
The Wildcats struggled early in the race and were not able to keep up with No. 1 Wisconsin, which won the team title with a total of 37 points.
The Badgers were led by senior Simon Bairu, who won the individual title for the second year in a row by finishing with a time of 29:15.
Senior Jonah Maiyo was the second Wildcat to finish, just missing a spot in the top 50 with a time of 30:44 (51st).
Junior Obed Mutanya, who finished second to Cheseret in both the Pac-10 Championship and the Western Regional races, finished 70th (30:57).
The rest of the runners to score points for the Wildcats were sophomore Mohamed Trafeh (92nd, 31:11) and junior Moses Mpanga (163rd, 31:53).
Juniors Kenny Frank (193rd, 31:22) and Eric Chavez (204th, 32:53) also ran for Arizona.
- Information taken from www.arizonaathletics.com.