NACOGDOCHES, TEXAS (November 3, 2008) The Stephen F. Austin cross country teams both posted second-place finishes and picked up Freshman of the Year honors Monday in the Southland Conference Championships at Piney Woods Country Club. This marks the seventh time in eight years for the Lumberjacks to finish in the league’s top two, while the SFA women have been in the top three each of the last seven seasons, finishing first or second in six of those championship meets.
In the men’s race, Lamar posted four All-SLC performances and took the team title with a score of 21 points. SFA had two all-conference finishers and three runners inside the top 15 to post a team score of 87 points, 42 points ahead of third-place Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.
The Ladyjacks also recorded a pair of All-SLC showings and finished just 12 points off the pace of champion Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. SFA’s 61 points bested third-place Texas State by 34 points.
The Lumberjacks were led for the fourth time this season by true sophomore Dennis Yeats. He earned All-SLC honors by finishing seventh with a time of 25:31 on the hilly 8,000-meter course. Redshirt freshman Mitch Ownbey was close behind, taking eighth with a time of 25:39. For his performance, Ownbey was named the SLC Freshman of the Year, marking the first such award for an SFA cross country athlete.
Junior Keith Mahipala narrowly missed all-conference honors when he crossed the line in 26:00, finishing 13th overall. A pair of true freshmen rounded out the Lumberjacks’ top five as Xavier Rodriguez finished 27th with a time of 26:50, and Harmon McClanahan took 31st with his time of 27:03. Redshirt freshman Sam Hulse was 55th with a time of 28:18.
Each of the six Lumberjacks improved on their time from last month’s pre-conference race at Piney Woods.
In the women’s race, SFA was paced, for the third time in four races, by a pair of true freshmen, just not the pair that might have been expected. Stephanie Ganter led the way with an All-SLC third-place time of 22:08, just 27 seconds off the winning pace of UTSA’s Dana Mecke. Classmate Brette Fleming-Wood was the next Ladyjack to finish, cracking the top 10 with a ninth-place time of 22:36 on the 6,000-meter course.
Fleming-Wood made just her second appearance in the Ladyjacks’ top three, stepping up in the absence of true freshman Brittainy Robertson, who was forced from Monday’s race with an injury. Ganter was named the SLC Freshman of the Year, a first for the SFA women’s team.
Sophomore Amy Shackelford just missed out on All-SLC accolades, finishing 12th with a time of 22:48. Sophomores Meredith Blocker and Megan Jenkins gave SFA five runners inside the top 20 by finishing 17th and 20th, respectively. Blocker clocked in at 23:09, and Jenkins was timed at 23:16.
Sophomore Marie Flores finished 29th with a time of 23:42, and junior Heather Adams took 37th with a time of 24:12.
As in the men’s race, all seven SFA runners bettered their previous time on the course, with Jenkins improving her performance by more than a full minute.
The Lumberjacks and Ladyjacks will next compete on Nov. 15, when they travel to Waco, Texas, for the NCAA South Central Regional Championships.
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