Rotich Leads U.S. Men To Pan Am Victory in Victoria

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

Anthony Rotich, a former collegiate star at the University of Texas-El Paso and four-time NCAA champion, led the U.S. senior men to a victory over Canada on Saturday at the Pan Am Cross Country Cup on the Valley Course in Victoria, B.C.

Rotich was beaten to the line by Johnatas De Oliveira Cruz of Brazil but both were timed in 32:50 over 10 kilometers at Bear Mountain Resort. It marked the first time in the four editions of the event that an American athlete did not win the senior men's race.

Dillon Maggard (33:23) and David Goodman (33:33) placed fourth and sixth, respectively, for the U.S. The team competition scored four runners and the U.S., with Nick Hauger taking ninth, beat Canada 21-39. 

Genevieve Lalonde of Canada won the senior women's 10-kilometer race in 37:37 and beat runner-up Carrie Verdon of the U.S. to the finish line by 32 seconds. It marked the first victory in the senior women's division for Canada.

Sarah Pease and Tansey Lystad finished fifth and sixth for the U.S.

Canada, led by Lalonde, went 1-4-7-10 on the way to the team with with 22 points. The U.S. was second with 28. 

Northern Arizona's Corey Gorgas won the men's U-20 8-kilometer race in 27:15 and Evan Bishop of East Grand Rapids MI, a Wisconsin recruit, took second in 27:20. Gorgas became the second straight American male athlete to win the U-20 race, following Connor Lane of Stanford in 2018.

The U.S. went 1-2-9-14 and won the team title with 26 points. 

Brooke Rauber, a senior from Tully High in New York won the U-20 women's race by nine seconds, covering the 6-kilometer course in 23:12. It marked not only the first victory for an American female in the U-20 division, but the first U.S. medal of any kind. 

Canada put three runners in the top 10 and won the team competition with 27 points. The U.S. edged Peru on a fifth-runner tiebreaker to claim second with 42 points.