A&T Aggie Women Win HBCU Challenge, Butler Wins Again

CARY, North Carolina (Oct. 6, 2018)  – The North Carolina A&T men’s cross country team was not able to win their fifth straight 8k HBCU Cross Country Challenge finishing second. But N.C. A&T did come away with a title from the HBCU challenge for a fifth straight time because the Aggie women won their 5k event with an average time of 19:59.28 at the Wake Med Soccer Complex on Saturday.

That was not the only streak the Aggies kept going. For the second straight week, junior G’Jasmyne Butler took first place at an event. A week after winning the Greensboro Cross Country Invitational at Hagan Stone Park, Butler crossed the finish line in record time (18:52.2) to win the HBCU challenge. It was also the women’s second straight week as meet winners.

As a team, the women scored a meet-low 26 points followed by Fayetteville State (83), N.C. Central (123), Benedict (141) and St. Augustine (145). Morehouse took the men’s title with 45 points followed by the Aggies (50), N.C. Central (94), Benedict (110), and St. Augustine (159) rounding out the top-5.

In the men’s 8k event, freshman Morris Kimble (25:37.5) was the fastest Aggie with a second-place finish shaving nearly 90 seconds off his old personal best. Morehouse prevented the Aggies from getting the five-peat by placing three runners in the top-5 including meet winner Trey Simons. After N.C. A&T, the top-5 included N.C. Central (94), Benedict (110) and St. Augustine’s (159).

WOMEN'S RESULTS
MEN'S RESULTS

The Aggie women earned their second straight win of the season by having three runners record personal best with two others running season bests. In addition to Butler, who earned her second career win, freshmen Shalah Means (20:05.7) and Monzerad Creary (20:39.9) set personal records. Juniors Camille Martin (20:29.5) and Khadijah Reid (21:05.2) ran season-bests.

Junior Kristoni Barnes finished fourth overall with a time of 19:49.1. Means, Martin and Creary finished fifth, seventh and ninth respectively to place five Aggies in the top-10. Reid finished 12th.

N.C. A&T’s men saw juniors Mar’Quise McGee (26:55.8) and Dequan Maddox (27:08.3) join Kimble in the top-10 as they finished eighth and ninth.

Cross country has one more meet before the MEAC Championships take place, Saturday, Oct. 27 in Smyrna, Del. The Aggies will run in the VertCrossInvitational hosted by High Point University, Friday, Oct. 12. The women start at 4 p.m. with a 5k run. The men’s 8k follows at 4:45 p.m.

NORTH CAROLINA A&T STATE UNIVERSITY SPORTS INFORMATION