LAKE CHARLES, La. – The 2026 Southland Conference Women’s Cross Country Championships wrapped up on Friday morning with some familiar names atop the leaderboard. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi junior Elizabeth Khatevi won her third individual title in as many seasons, while the women of SFA picked up their second consecutive SLC team title.
Khatevi has improved in each of her SLC Championship performances, and her time of 18:53.56 on Friday set a new PR and broke her own meet record set just one season ago. She becomes the third runner in conference history to win three individual titles, joining ULM’s Nicola Roff (1987-89) and McNeese’ Sita Waru (1999-2001).
Mercy Kipchumba (19:59.66) and Valentine Jemutai (19:59.87) led the way for the Ladyjacks, finishing in second and third place respectively. Evaline Chepkoech (20:38.10) took sixth, while teammate Sharon Boyani Omwoyo (20:49.54) set a new PR to give SFA half of the top eight.
Abbigail Hutchinson (21:02.25) rounded out the scoring for SFA, finishing her day in 13th place individually to help solidify the program’s conference-leading tenth team crown. The Ladyjacks’ team total of 32 point was the best mark at a conference meet since 2014, when Lamar collected first place with a stellar 20-point performance.
Uxoe Castro Martin of McNeese landed in fourth place behind a time of 20:18.95, while Lamar’s Ashton Rainey took fifth at 20:23.88. Ariadna Navarro (20:45.34) closed the day in seventh as HCU’s highest finisher with a new PR, while reigning Freshman of the Year Phylis Kibet (20:53.36) of TAMUCC and defending Newcomer of the Year N Vanee Anchike (20:59.45) of UTRGV rounded out the top ten.
To view the full list of results from Friday’s meet,
please click here.
Conference Awards
- Athlete of the Year: Elizabeth Khatevi, TAMUCC
- Freshman of the Year: Ariadna Navarro, Houston Christian
- Newcomer of the Year: Evaline Chepkoech, SFA
- Coach of the Year: Robert Hansen, SFA
First-Team All-Conference
- Elizabeth Khatevi, TAMUCC
- Mercy Kipchumba, SFA
- Valentine Jemutai, SFA
- Castro-Martin, McNeese
- Ashton Rainey, Lamar
Second-Team All-Conference
- Evaline Chepkoech, SFA
- Ariadna Navarro, HCU
- Sharon Boyani Omwoyo, SFA
- Phylis Kibet, TAMUCC
- N Vanee Anchike, UTRGV
Final Standings
- SFA (32)
- Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (81)
- UTRGV (116)
- Houston Christian (121)
- Incarnate Word (135)
- Lamar (146)
- McNeese (148)
- LSU New Orleans (200)
- East Texas A&M (215)
- Nicholls State (233)
- Northwestern State (337)
- Southeastern (369)