Lalang Set to Race for National Championship

Live Results | Meet Central

LITTLE ROCK – For just the third time in program history, a Little Rock cross country runner will be racing for a national championship on Saturday.
 
Isaac Lalang, in just his first year with the program, will take on the best college runners in the nation at the NCAA Championship meet at E.P Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky. The men's race is set to begin at noon, and Lalang will be running a 10K for the second consecutive race.
 
The Trojans have not seen a runner at the NCAA Championship since Brent Corbitt in 2002. Corbitt is the only previous Little Rock man to compete at the national championship meet. The only Trojan woman to run for a national title was Latasha Richard in 1996.

Back in 2002, Corbitt took 127th place. Richard has the best-ever national finish for a Trojan with her 37th-place effort in 1996.
 
Lalang reached Saturday's race by taking ninth place as an individual at the NCAA South Central Regional back on November 13. In that group of nine runners, Lalang finish fourth among those who were not on an automatically qualifying team, granting him a berth to the NCAA Championship.
 
Lalang's race at the regional was his first competitive 10K of the year. He finished with a time of 30:17.1, the second-fastest time in school history, and tied Corbitt's finish of ninth place back in 2002 as the best regional finish in program history. Lalang was also named All-Region for his efforts.
 
Already the school record holder in the 8K, Lalang has a chance to move to the top of Little Rock's 10K list as well on Saturday.
 
Live results for Saturday's race will be available online.