Tristian Spence and Kidus Begashaw brought individual gold back home to Alamosa after winning their respective races at the NCAA DII Cross Country Championships in Kenosha, Wis., on Saturday.
In doing so, they made a bit of Adams State cross country history themselves.
Spence, a redshirt junior from Grand Junction, ran away with the NCAA DII Women’s Cross Country title, finishing the 6K race six seconds in front at 20:11.0, and never really being challenged once she assumed command of the race two kilometers in.
Begashaw, a senior from Aurora, had a different race. He ran from behind for most of the 10K championship race, at one point in 11th place at the 6.8-kilometer mark behind teammate Julian Campos, then up to 8th place and still behind Campos at the 8K mark.
Then over the final kilometer Begashaw found his championship gear and heart, which led him past Wingate’s Antonin Saint Peyre to victory in 29:38.8, a full 3 seconds ahead of the runnerup. Campos was sixth overall in 29:53.8.
Spence and Begashaw become the first Adams State runners to win the NCAA DII women’s and men’s cross country titles in the same year. They join the legendary Pat Porter and Mary Jaqua, who each won individual titles for Adams State at the NAIA Cross Country Championships in 1981. The 1981 race was also run at the cross country course in Kenosha, Wis.
Adams State was runnerup in the men’s team standings, nine points behind Wingate which won the team trophy with a low score of 62 points.
Grand Valley State, the perennial challenger to Adams State, won the women’s team title. Adams State, which had won four of the past five team championships, finished fourth as a team, with Ava O’Connor 8th (20:31.2); Claragh Keane 59th (21:24.5); Keira Damron 62nd (21.24.8); and Tanya Bouet (21.27.0) 65th to round out the Grizzlies’ scoring.
Elizabeth McQuitty, a 2024 graduate of Alamosa High who runs for UC-Colorado Springs, finished 41st overall.
Spence looked comfortable throughout in what turned out to be perfect cross country racing weather off the shores of Lake Michigan, pacing herself with teammate Ava O’Connor over the first two kilometers before she kicked forward and got faster as the race progressed according to her split times.
Spence is leaving her own legacy on the championship-rich Adams State running program. She is the reigning 5,000 meters NCAA DII Outdoor Track and Field champion and now the national cross country champion.
Begashaw had led Adams State to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference and NCAA DII South-Central Region team titles with individual runnerup finishes in each of those races leading up to Kenosha.
He had different thoughts at the NCAA championships. He remained behind Saint Peyre coming into the stretch when he raced past the Wingate senior and came out of the woodsy course in the clear to the finish line.
Begashaw’s was a dramatic finish to Spence’s clear runaway. Both are national cross country champions. On the campus of Adams State and in the community of Alamosa, there is no greater glory.