Liberty’s Kirwa named to ASUN Men’s XC All-Decade Team

Liberty alumnus Azaria Kirwa has been named to the 2010-2019 ASUN Conference Men’s Cross Country All-Decade Team.

Throughout the month of July, the ASUN will be recognizing each sport’s top student-athletes from the recently completed decade. Liberty spent the final year and a half of the decade as a conference member after joining the ASUN on July 1, 2018.

The Flames have quickly made their presence known in the ASUN Conference, as eight different Liberty squads have won at least one ASUN team title over the last two years. Liberty captured the 2018-19 Bill Bibb Trophy, which is awarded to the ASUN Conference institution with the top overall athletic program.

A native of Eldoret, Kenya, Kirwa captured the men’s individual title during his lone ASUN Cross Country Championships appearance in 2018, with his 8K time of 25:03.7 pacing the field by 10 seconds. Kirwa was named ASUN Men’s Runner of the Year and Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Kirwa went on to become the first ASUN men’s runner to qualify for the NCAA Division I Cross Country Championships in six years, placing 81^st overall during his second consecutive national meet appearance.

Kirwa was previously named to the 2010-19 Big South Conference Men’s Cross Country All-Decade Team in June after earning All-Big South honors as a freshman, sophomore and junior (2015, 2016 and 2017). Kirwa joined Josh Edmonds and Josh McDougal as Liberty’s only men’s cross country runners ever to garner four all-conference recognitions at the NCAA Division I level.

The Liberty men’s squad has placed second at each of its two ASUN Cross Country Championships appearances. The 2020 ASUN Cross Country Championships are scheduled to be hosted by Lipscomb in Nashville, Tenn., on Oct. 31.