For the second straight year, Abilene Christian claimed the men's title and Midwestern State won the women's crown at the Lone Star Conference Cross Country Championships Saturday in Canyon, Texas.
ACU reigned in the men's eight kilometer race for the 19th consecutive year, while MSU prevailed for its second straight league title on the women's six kilometer course.
The race was hosted by West Texas A&M at the WTAMU Horse Center.
The Wildcats recorded a team score of 33 points with three of the top five finishers for their 25th league cross country title. Amos Sang earned individual medalist honors with a time of 24:44 to lead ACU. Cleophas Tanui finished second (25:21), while LSC Freshman of the Year Colby Delbene crossed the line in fifth place with a time of 26:04.
Tarleton State was second with 75 points and Eastern New Mexico tallied 109 for a third-place finish. Cameron was fourth with 118 points. Angelo State (128), West Texas A&M (144), Texas A&M-Commerce (152), East Central (159) and Texas A&M-Kingsville (235) rounded out the field.
CU's Julius Korir finished third and Tarleton's Gerzain Valenzuela was fourth individually. ECU's John Sutrick, A&M-C's Tyler Tyndell, CU's Josh Stewart, Tarleton's Jared McNeil and Mohamed Khelalfa of Cameron finished in sixth through 10th place, respectively.
Sydnee Cole led the Mustangs to the team title by topping the field on the women's side with a time of 23:02.5. Adding to the MSU score were Kayla Hendrix (12th, 24:35.9) and Heather Owens (14th, 24:50.8).
MSU edged ASU for women's crown with 70 points to the Rambelles 73, while East Central placed third with 92. Central Oklahoma, West Texas A&M and Tarleton State rounded out the top six teams. Eastern New Mexico, Abilene Christian, Southwestern Oklahoma, Texas A&M-Kingsville and Texas A&M-Commerce finished in seventh through 11th place, respectively.
TAMUK's Erica Alvarado placed second in 23:36.9 with WT's Aries Bazaldua, the LSC Freshman of the Year, in third. ASU's Brittney Heath was fourth, ECU's Sarah Reihart sixth, Tarleton's Vanessa Elizondo seventh, ASU's Emeline Crutcher eighth, ECU's Hayley Jennings ninth and SWOSU's Chelsey Dillon tenth.
The top 10 finishers in each race were honored as All-LSC runners.
Notes:
Michael Boit, 1972 Olympic Bronze medalist in the 800 meters, was in attendance and presented the medals and trophies. Boit placed fourth in the 1972 1500 meter race, and won medals at three Commonwealth Games, including a gold in the 1978 800 meter race in Edmonton. After retiring from masters' races in 1985, he took a position at his alma mater Kenyatta University in 1987, but took a leave of absence from that position to serve as Kenya's Commissioner of Sports.
He has two connections to the Lone Star Conference, as he received his bachelor's degree from Eastern New Mexico and is visiting West Texas A&M for nine months as a visiting professor of Exercise and Sports Sciences.
He was raised in Eldoret, Kenya, the home city of seven current LSC cross country runners, including today's men's champion, Amos Sang. Others from Eldoret are Sang's ACU teammate Daniel Maina, David Barmasai and Julius Korir from Cameron, who is Boit's nephew, Daniel Kiptoo and Silvia Barkechir from East Central, and from Boit's alma mater ENMU, Richard Kogo.
Quotes:
Sydnee Cole, Winner of Women's 6K individual championship in 23:02.5
What did you think of your race today, the course, or any general thoughts?
I just ran. I felt good so I just ran through.
You've already seen the ACU course and general thoughts looking forward to regionals and on to nationals, MSU finished 2nd last year...
We want to run faster and better. I want a PR at regionals from what I ran today.
Were you happy with your time today?
Yeah, I was happy I had never run a 6K before, so I was pretty happy.
What are some of your thoughts on the team this year so far and looking forward?
We're a young team, we didn't have many returners from last year and one of our returners got hurt, so we brought in a lot of girls. We've been coming on strong recently, late in the season and we're looking forward to regionals.
Koby Styles, Coach- Team Champion Midwestern State (2nd straight title for MSU)
Some thoughts on the race today, on Sydnee's win, and on the team?
I couldn't be more proud. This year we threw time out and they just went out there and raced hard. Last year we flew under the radar all the way through conference, regionals and nationals and just surprised everybody, This year we were the team to beat, had the target on our backs but it was going to take a tough race to beat us this year.
That last stretch, everyone was just cryin' and grittin' and racing hard.
(As for) Sydnee, I couldn't ask for a better person on the team, she was just great, was talking a little bit about drafting off people because of the wind but she was saying after the race she realized she didn't need to draft she just decided to go and Sydnee's tough to beat when she decides to go.
Looking forward to regionals and nationals, you guys have already seen the course and raced it, so any thoughts looking ahead to Abilene?
Abilene is a lot like this course, there were more turns today than there's going to be up at ACU, but the weather should be similar. I think we're good when it's really cold or hot and humid; we're just a tough, gritty team
I think the ACU pre-regional and this race have been our two best races, so we're getting better and we're definitely going to be ready to run in 2 weeks.
Amos Sang, winner of the 8K men's race in 24:44.0
What did you think of your race today, the race and course in general?
It went well, had a good start. The race was really towards the end, I thought it was a good race.
You've obviously already seen the regional course as its going to be in Abilene, any thoughts on that?
It's a long course; our team wants to win regionals and is looking forward to it.
Sam Burroughs, coach of team champion Abilene Christian (ACU wins for the 19th year in a row)
What did you think of your team's performance and Amos' win today?
Amos did a very good job, executed our game plan, we were the undisputed favorites, so it was good to come in here and win. It was a good team performance
Any general thoughts on the race or the win?
You know I wasn't here for the first 17, but I'm thrilled to be here for the 18th and 19th and really continue the tradition for Abilene Christian.
You've not only seen the regional course, but you've also seen the Southern Indiana (nationals) course, any thoughts on that?
The Southern Indiana course is very tough, very hilly; we've been doing a lot of hill workouts over September and October to get ready for it. We're also going to go back to the 6 a.m. workouts for the next few weeks to get in as cold of weather as we can to prepare for that race.