Battling against frigid temperatures and steady winds, UTEP's Looper clocked a time of 21:10.5 in the 6K race to finish 15th. Her pace was only 40 seconds behind the champion Kara Grgas-Wheeler of Colorado (20:30.5). The native of Oldeberkoop, Netherlands became the first UTEP runner to earn all-American honors in cross country since Damian Kallabis did so in 1996. The WAC runner-up is only the eighth female runner in school history to be named an all-American, and is the first since Wilma Van Onna earned the prestigious accolade in 1990.
Also competing in the women's race was TCU junior Glady's Keitany, who finished 40th out of 249 competitors. The WAC individual champion covered the terrain in 21:28.
In the men's division, TCU standout Njubi, who won the WAC and South Central Regional individual titles, kept pace with the leaders to finish 28th. Running the 10K course in 30:58, Njubi was 43.5 seconds off the winning mark of 30:14.5 set by Providence College's Keith Kelly. The Kenya native had finished 13th at the Pre-Nationals on October 14 in Ames.
Teammate and fellow Kenyan Herbert Mwangi challenged the pack to finish 54th in a field of 253. The Horned Frogs' No. 2 runner all season, Mwangi, a junior, clocked a time of 31:21.4.
Arkansas handily captured the men's team title with 83 points to lead the 31-team field. For the women, Colorado established a 50-point advantage to earn the team title in the field of 31 teams.
For complete Championship information visit www.ncaachampionships.com or www.ncaa.org.