Results
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LAKE CHARLES, La. – Junior
Carnley Graham repeated as a Second Team All-Southland Conference honoree Friday after placing sixth at the Southland Conference Championships hosted by the Enos Derbonne Sports Complex at McNeese State University.
Graham slogged through the 6K course, parts of which were reduced to a swampy marshland, to post a time of 23:16.0 against a field of 13 teams and 92 runners.
Further up, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi senior Allyson Girard cruised through the swamp in recording a first-place time of 22:15.6 that was 36 seconds faster than the mark of New Orleans' runner-up Arina Kleschukova (22:51.0). Lamar senior Katie Buckley (23:00) placed third followed by fellow first-team all-conference awardees Gladys Jerotic (23:05) of McNeese and Taryn Surratt (23:12) of Stephen F. Austin.
Incredibly, the top seven runners all represented different schools.
The Islanders were the first team to have two runners cross the finish line as Valentina Campos (23:34.8) finished eighth, and this performance combined with three additional top-30 showings helped Corpus Christi edge Lamar for the team title by one point, 70-71. SFA was right behind them with a third-place total of 74 and host McNeese placed fourth with 81 points.
The next four schools all scored well over 150 points, including ACU, which placed eighth with 185, and the five teams that finished behind the Wildcats all totaled over 200 points.
Additional scorers for ACU today were sophomores
Hannah Marut (20th - 24:09),
Briahna Gerlach (35th - 25:18) and
Soren Underwood (52nd - 26:08), and freshman
Loren Rivera (75th - 27:39).
ACU's men's team fell back to ninth place after placing seventh at home one year ago. The Wildcats' top finisher in the 8K race was freshman
Levi Chambers, who placed 25th with a time of 28:01.
Central Arkansas dethroned Lamar as conference champions, 57-64, by having their first five runners finish between the ninth and 14 positions. The Cardinals, however, still claimed the top-two individual spots with senior Jamie Crow leading teammate Jordan Rowe to the finish line, 25:59 to 26:17.
Rowe held off Incarnate Word's Garett Cortez at the finish line, earning runner-up honors by less than two seconds. UIW place third in the team standings with 81 points followed by SFA (102) and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (110).
Also scoring this morning for the Wildcat men were freshman
Kevin Kipkosgei (43rd - 28:45.8), senior
Travis Nichols (61st - 29:46.3), and sophomores
Conner Miller (64th - 29:59.9) and
Seth Crockett (69th - 30:20.8).
Next up for the Wildcats is a trip to the NCAA South Central Regional Championships hosted by Texas A&M on Friday, Nov. 9. ACU ran that same course on the same course for the Texas A&M Invitational.
