Waxahachie, Texas- February 17, 2016- The Southwestern Assemblies of God University (SAGU) cross country/track team has another athlete that has qualified for the NAIA Outdoor National Track Championships Marathon . Jerry Nava will be SAGU’s first male runner to compete at the NAIA National meet.
At the end of January, Nava competed in the Mansfield Run with Heart Half Marathon where he finished 2 nd place overall out of 213 runners. In order to make it to the national tournament, runners must meet the standard of 1:15:00 for the half-marathon. Nava finished at 1:14:17, which equals a 5:40 per mile pace.
“It’s a great honor to represent and be the first male from SAGU to qualify for NAIA nationals. Glory to God for blessing me with this opportunity,” says Nava, “It shows that hard work and hours of training preparing me to get the qualification paid off.”
Cross country coach Jason Covarrubias believes Nava is very deserving of his history-making performance for SAGU, “In all my years as a college coach, I have not had an opportunity to coach a guy runner who could put it all together. It’s either they are uber committed and work hard but do not have the talent to truly compete at a championship caliber, or they have all the talent to compete but lack the work ethic; Jerry Nava has both. I am excited to see what this outdoor season has in store for him.”
Nava will join teammate Destiny Garza who also qualified for the marathon. Garza finished her half-marathon with a time of 1:22:26, which is a 6:18 mile average. Her 
goal for the race was to beat 1:30, which is the national qualifying standard for the NAIA National Marathon.
Garza and Nava will now be competing together in Gulf Shores, Alabama in May. The national meet will be the first time both of them have ran a full 26.2 miles.
Southwestern Assemblies of God University is a private, Christian university located 30 minutes south of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in Waxahachie, Texas. The university was established in 1927, and now offers more than 70 associate, bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees on campus or online. More information is available at www.sagu.edu or by calling 1-888-YES-SAGU.
Contact: Natalie Tristan, SAGU SID, [email protected]
