Reyes shines again

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Aleona Reyes is an All-American again.

The junior at Jamestown College placed 25th out of over 330 runners at the NAIA national meet in Vancouver, Wash., on Saturday.

Reyes, from Belen, N.M., covered the sloppy 5,000-meter course in 18 minutes and 25 seconds.

“Midway through the race, I counted Aleona around 39th or 40th, so she ran a strong second half,” JC coach Jim Clark said.

The top 30 finishers earn All-American status. Reyes, who has qualified for nationals in all three of her seasons for the Jimmies, finished 12th as a sophomore.

“Aleona worked hard and had a terrific year,” Clark said. “It is just wonderful to cap off a year with the honor of being on the awards stand.”

Reyes had a slow start to the season due to injury and illness, but she came on strong at the end to become just the second multi-time All-American in cross country for the Jimmies. Katie Conlon is the other. Conlon accomplished the feat three times from 2008-2010.

Freshman Samantha Goff also qualified for the race and finished in the top third of the field. The Danvers, Minn., native placed 118th out of 320 finishers in a time of 19:39.

“You’ve got to beat a lot of good runners to do that,” Clark said. “I think she found that you get bounced around quite a bit in a field of that size. You just have to keep pacing.”

British Columbia won the team title with a score of 98 points.

The individual winner was Hillary Holt of the College of Idaho in a blistering time of 17 minutes.

Tags: sports, jimmies, track