FRISCO, Texas – While the past weekend saw every Southland Conference cross country team taking a break from competition, in no means were its athletes and coaches winding down for the season.
This Saturday, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will play host to every Southland Conference squad as they all compete in the Conference Championship. The men’s 8k race will start at 8 a.m. and the women are scheduled to begin at 8:45 a.m.
(Results for the championship will be posted online at http://www.flashresults.com/flashtexas/ as soon as possible on the day of the event.)
In the men’s competition, the No. 5 (USTFCCCA South Poll) Islanders are led by junior Shadrack Songok who has followed his All-American winning season in 2006 (finishing 19th at the NCAA nationals and earning the SLC’s Runner of the Year award) in impressive fashion. So far this season, Songok has won three races – his most-recent a 29:22 finish (10k course) at the 2007 Chile Pepper Festival on October 13 – and was named Athlete of the Week three times. Senior teammate J.R. Pulido was also a consistent force during the season for AMCC.
The Lamar men are ranked No. 4 in the same poll and are led by sophomore Francis Kasagule, a two-time Athlete of the Week recipient this year, and junior Samuel Kosgei. The two Cardinals finished 1-and-2 in every race that Lamar competed in this season and Kasagule won two SLC Athlete of the Week awards.
UT Arlington is the third Southland Conference men’s team to be ranked in the top 10 in the USTFCCCA South Poll with an eighth-place ranking. The one-two punch of senior Jody Broccoli-Hickey and junior Idilio Campos has finished first or second for the Mavericks in each race this season. Broccoli-Hickey and Campos both were given SLC honorable mention awards this season.
Eleventh-ranked Stephen F. Austin enjoyed having three athletes consistently in its top-three finishers in each race this season with juniors Gerardo Moreno, Aaron Hohn and Cole Hollingsworth. The Lumberjacks never finished out of the top 10 in any race this season.
Finishing the Southland Conference representatives in the polls is No. 13 McNeese State. McNeese had a stellar season from freshman Mark Hoey, who won the NSU Demon Cross Country Invitational on October 1st and finished in the top 10 in every race that McNeese competed. Alasdair Russell, another freshman, was right on Hoey’s heels the entire season, also finishing every race in the top 10. Hoey also received three honorable mentions for the Athlete of the Week award.
Nicholls State’s men’s program is made up entirely of freshmen, yet Brandon Kotzur still earned an SLC Athlete of the Week award in mid-September for finishing second in the Ragin’ Cajun Invitational. Following Kotzur in every race was Brandon Loupe.
Northwestern State had a consistent year from junior Chris Pearson. Pearson earned an Athlete of the Week award this month after taking second place in the Centenary Invitational and never finished out of the top 10. Freshman Dusty Dischler finished every race as NSU’s second-best.
Central Arkansas’ Danny McBride, a junior, finished first on the team in every race this season and had two Southland Conference honorable mention awards. McBride’s best finish was third overall at the University of Arkansas-Little Rock Invitational on September 22 (26:17).
Sam Houston State’s top performer was senior Dustin Joubert, who won the Northwestern State Invitational on October 12 (20:37). Joubert also earned an SLC honorable mention twice this season.
Southeastern Louisiana’s Kalphys Kemboi, a freshman from Kenya, won the Mississippi College Invitational (25:13) on October 13 and took second at the LSU tiger Festival (25:25) on September 22.
UTSA’s best finish as a team this year was first in the Ricardo Romo/Fiesta Texas Classic on Sept. 22. Every Roadrunner finished in the top 10 that day, with freshman Brandon Chiuminetta tying for fourth place (15:40). Chiuminetta was the top finisher for UTSA in three of four races this year and earned a Southland Conference honorable mention for his efforts.
Texas State’s Roel Elizalde and Michael Richards traded first and second-place team finishes all season long and led the Bobcats to three second-place team finishes. Elizadle also had two honorable mention awards.
In last year’s championship, Lamar took first overall with 37 points and four runners, including Kosgei and Kasagule, finishing in the top 10. Stephen F. Austin was second at the event (50) and Sam Houston State took third (87). Corpus Christi’s Songok won the meet with a time of 24:20, just four seconds ahead of Kosgei. Kasagule finished third (24:30).
On the women’s side of the competition, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi goes into the conference championship as the No. 6-ranked team. Leading the way for the Islanders is junior Meghan Lemke, who finished in the top 10 in three of the four races her school competed in. Lemke was also a multiple honorable mention-winner for the Southland Athlete of the Week award. Freshman Sarah De Los Santos also had a good season, finishing in the school’s top three every race.
Lamar, ranked 11th, will be led by junior Renee Graham and senior Clerc Koenck. Graham had two second-place finishes and took third at the NCAA Pre-Nationals (21:04) on October 13, and was a two-time Athlete of the Week winner. Meanwhile, Koenck, last season’s defending champion, took first overall at Pre-Nationals (20:56) and won the last Athlete of the Week award in the conference.
No. 13 Stephen F. Austin has senior Katrina Nicholas and freshman Amy Shackleford to contend with the best the SLC has to offer. Nicholas never finished out of the top 10 in a race this season, her top performance was a sixth-place effort (17:52) at the Islander Splash on September 28. Shackleford was never out of the top 20, her best an 18:33 at the Memphis Twilight on October 6 for 15th place.
Texas State goes into Saturday’s championship ranked 14th and led by sophomore Whitney Perkins and freshman Heather Bullin. Both runners traded first and second place among Bobcat runners throughout the season, the latest at the TLU Bulldog Invitational where Perkins took fourth overall (23:26) and Bullin was right behind (23:30) with a fifth place finish.
Central Arkansas, ranked No. 15, got a great deal of senior leadership from Lauren Merritt who was the top Sugar Bear runner in every race for UCA. Merritt only finished out of the top 15 once and had four top 10 results. Finishing in second for UCA every race was fellow senior Whitney Welch.
McNeese State saw exceptional running from sophomore Tinette Burger all year – especially the two-week period in which Burger won back-to-back SLC Athlete of the Week awards. Burger earned the recognition by winning back-to-back races – the Louisiana Tech Cross Country Meet on September 15 and the LSU Tiger Festival on September 22. Freshman teammate Amy Guinn also had a good season, winning the NSU Demon Cross Country Invitational (19:51) on October 1.
Junior Charlotte Everhardt won the Ragin’ Cajun Invitational for Nicholls State on September 8 (20:17), and sophomore teammate Michaela Guidry finished as the top runner for her squad in three other races. Everhardt’s victory in Louisiana earned her a SLC Athlete of the Week award.
UT San Antonio sophomore Dana Mecke earned a Southland Athlete of the Week award after finishing third at the Incarnate Word Invitational (18:04) on October 6, yet had better finishes during the season, like a first place overall run of 18:00 at the Ricardo Romo/Fiesta Texas Classic. Teammate and fellow sophomore Faith Barlow also ran well with four top 15 finishes.
Dorcas Kapkai of Southeastern Louisiana was the top finisher for her team in the last two races of the season, winning the Mississippi College Invitational (22:21) on October 13. Teammate Everlyne Matonyei fiished second at the same meet (22:24).
Northwestern State had three consecutive top ten (two fifth-place) finishes by sophomore Shannon Foley.
Lamar also won the women’s side of the meet last year with a 46-point effort. SFA finished second (73) and UT Arlington was third (99). Lamar’s Koenck won the meet with a time of 21:35 while her teammate, Graham, was just seconds behind for second place (21:41). Jodi Hulett of UTA finished third (21:52).
Results for the championship will be posted online at http://www.flashresults.com/flashtexas/ as soon as possible on the day of the event.
Courtesy: Southland.org
