Brannon Cheplak
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- Height:
- 5-5
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- Hometown:
- Eldoret, Kenya
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- Year:
- Jr.
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- High School:
- Kipsaos Boys HS
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- Previous School:
- Kipsaos Boys HS
Bio
2018: Finished as Tech’s No. 1 runner at the final three meets of the season … earned Second Team All-OVC by way of a 10th-place eight-kilometer finish (24:48.9) at the OVC Championships on Oct. 27 … was an all-region performer at the NCAA South Regional meet, coming in 19th with a 10-kilometer time of 31:57.7 … took an 8K season-best of 24:35.06 at the Greater Louisville Classic, the 11th-fastest time in Tech history … recorded four of the top-20 8K times in the TTU record book … netted four top-10 overall finishes … never finished lower than 29th overall at any meet ... had four 8K times under 25 minutes.
2017: Was Tech's No. 2 finisher in every race ... produced two top-10 and four top-25 results ... obliterated his previous best in the 8K and broke 25 minutes for the first time on October 14 at the adidas Pre-Nationals, where he crossed the line in 24:27.5 for 22nd overall ... was one of two Tech runners to compete at the NCAA South Regional, recording a 10K time of 32:04.0 for 35th place out of 174 athletes ... all four of Cheplak's 8K times from 2017 are in the top 20 in TTU men's cross country history; his mark from Pre-Nationals is the highest at No. 6.
2016: Cheplak opened the 2016 season with a 6K time of 19:29.3...recorded a personal-best 8K time at the OVC Championships on Oct. 29 when he placed 17th overall with a time of 25:47.9, which marks him 24th in the Tech record book...was a solid middle-of the-pack runner for the Golden Eagles; tallied one second-place, three third-places, two fourth-places, and one fifth-place team finish...placed 67th overall at the NCAA South Regionals with a 10K time of 32:24.2.
Personal: Cheplak is a native of Eldoret, Kenya...graduated from the Kipsaos Boys High School in 2014...will major in agriculture.
News mentions
NEW ORLEANS, La. – The Tennessee Tech men’s and women’s cross country teams have garnered All-Academic honors from the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association for the 2018 season. With this set of awards, the Tech women’s team has now been recognized three times in program history, while the men’s team has met the criteria in two different seasons. Teams must record a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or better to be eligible.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – In what has become almost a weekly occurrence this season, the 2018 Tennessee Tech cross country teams added more record book material at Friday morning’s NCAA South Region Championships. Purity Sanga re-established the program’s best individual finish, and the men’s team – led by Brannon Cheplak’s all-region performance – took seventh out of 24 teams, the best regional result in Wayne Angel’s tenure as head coach. Sanga’s six-kilometer time of 20-minutes, 43.0-seconds awarded her seventh place overall among 208 runners in the competition, and improved on the program’s top individual finish, which she set last year with an eighth-place result. Sanga, who continues to make her case as the best runner in Tech history for either gender, recorded her second all-region honor in as many seasons, and will also be headed to the NCAA Championships for the second straight year. Her qualification for the championship meet comes by virtue of being the No. 4 individual finisher not affiliated with a team that finished in the top two.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Following record-book performances at the OVC Championships, the Tennessee Tech cross country teams have spent the past week and a half recuperating and preparing to be at their best at the biggest meet of their season to date: the NCAA South Region Championships. The South regional races will be held Friday morning at Apalachee Regional Park in Tallahassee, Fla., with the women’s six-kilometer competition kicking off the action at 7:30 a.m. CT. The men’s 10-kilometer run will follow, and is schedule for an 8:30 a.m. start.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – Purity Sanga followed through on her billing as the top female runner in the Ohio Valley Conference this season, winning the individual league title on Saturday morning at the OVC Championships. The Tech men made their own statement in the second race of the event, taking a third-place team finish, the program’s best since 1967.
CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. – An outstanding season for the Tennessee Tech cross country program has the potential to culminate in a storybook ending on Saturday morning when runners from all 12 Ohio Valley Conference institutions will meet in Cape Girardeau, Mo. to decide the league champions. For TTU, the OVC Championships will be the climax of meticulous preparation and five regular-season meets that have seen both the men’s and women’s teams progress tremendously.
NEW ORLEANS, La. – After its third runner-up finish, and fifth straight top-six result of the 2018 campaign, Tennessee Tech men’s cross country received a sixth-place ranking in the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association’s South Region, the highest position the program has ever held.
MONTEVALLO, Ala. – If the prior weeks’ accomplishments weren’t enough proof, Tennessee Tech cross country left no doubt it’s ready for the OVC Championships in two weeks, as it turned in another round of spectacular performances at the UAB Blazer Classic Friday morning.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The accomplishments continued to rise for the Tennessee Tech cross country teams with the conclusion of the Greater Louisville Classic Saturday, as the men’s team claimed its highest finish ever at the event and Purity Sanga broke the program record for the 5K for the third straight week.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Tennessee Tech cross country team produced another set of headlines at the 2018 Florida Mountain Dew Invitational, as Purity Sanga clocked the first sub-17-minute 5K time in Tech history, and the men’s team replicated its runner-up finish from a season ago. One week after etching her name into the women’s record book with the best 5K time in TTU history, sophomore Purity Sanga outdid herself this time, burning up the track on UF’s Mark Bostick Golf Course with a time of 16-minutes, 41.58-seconds for her second consecutive runner-up overall finish.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – It’s been an eventful two weeks for Tennessee Tech cross country. Opening weekend brought a pair of individual race champions and OVC Runners of the Week in Sammy Kipkirui and Purity Sanga, as well as a women’s team victory. Week two at the Commodore Classic was even bigger, highlighted by Sanga’s new-school-record 5K and second consecutive Runner of the Week award from the conference, as well as a top-five finish for the men’s team and their subsequent No. 8 South Region ranking by the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches’ Association.
NEW ORLEANS, La. – After an outstanding fourth-place showing at the Commodore Classic, the Tennessee Tech men’s cross country team caught the eyes of the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association, coming in at No. 8 in the South Region rankings released Monday.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Sophomore Purity Sanga is the new owner of the fastest women’s five-kilometer time in Tennessee Tech cross country history, and she sits alone at the top of the all-time list by a wide margin. Sanga came across the finish line in 17-minutes, 20.7-seconds, eclipsing Micayla Rennick’s old mark of 17:29.8 from October 29, 2016 by more than nine ticks of the clock.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. – “Whose house is this!?” “TECH’S!” “Whose house is this!?” “TECH’S!” “Whose house is this!?” “TECH’S!” So went the chant led by coach Wayne Angel prior to the men’s four-mile cross country race on Saturday morning at the Putnam County Sports Complex. The idea, obviously, was that both the TTU men’s and women’s cross country teams were coming into the race intending to defend their home turf, and when the results came out, that’s exactly what they had done.