12/1/2018 | Cross Country
PITTSBURGH – Senior Mercy Rotich closed out her historic Eastern New Mexico cross country career with a 60th place finish, crossing the finish line in 23:58.8 at the NCAA Division II National Championships being held at Schenley Park in Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Rotich ran hard through the cold, rainy conditions in the 264-runner event. She finished just 1:49.1 behind the championship pace and placed in the top 25-percent of the field that featured the best runners in all of Division II.
Completing the final race in her two years of competition at Eastern New Mexico, Rotich finishes her career as greatest female cross country runner in the history of the program. Rotich was a USTFCCCA All-American in 2016 while earning All-Region accolades in 2016 and 2018.
Finishing with three event wins in her career, Rotich became the first Lone Star Conference champion in program history on Nov. 3. On top of winning the LSC Championship, Rotich was the victor at the LSC Preview on Oct. 20 following her first career win at the NCAA South Central Region Championships in 2016. In the 11 events that Rotich participated in at ENMU, she placed in the top three in seven of those events, which included a second-place finish at the 2016 LSC Championships, garnering her LSC Newcomer of the Year accolades.
Rotich has made her mark on the Eastern New Mexico record book, holding the six-fastest 6k times since the inception of the program in 2002. Those marks include the record set with her sixth-place finish at the 2016 NCAA Division II National Championships when she crossed the finish line in 20:36.0.
Along with the 6k record, Rotich also broke the ENMU 5k record twice this year. In the first meet of 2018 at the Texas Tech Open, Rotich topped Amber Saiz’s record of 18:07.78 set in 2015 by three seconds with an 18:04.70. She shattered her own record once again at the Arkansas Chile Pepper Festival on Sept. 22 when she crossed the line in 17:37.70.
