HUNTSVILLE, Texas – It was the tightest finish since 1989, but the Lamar University men's cross country team claimed its ninth Southland Conference Championship in 10 seasons behind the individual winner freshman Iliass Aouani, who marked in at 24:24.6, Friday morning at the Country Campus Golf Course at Sam Houston State.
 
The men's team, which ran 8,000 meters, had five runners in the top eight with Alex Dunbar, Sean Chalmers, Gabriel Steffenson and Tobias Riker all finishing in the 5-8 slots, respectively. The Cardinals, 27 points, only defeated Stephen F. Austin by two points. SFA had runners finish second, third, fourth, ninth and 11^th.
 
The women's team took third place at the meet on 84 points, giving it the fifth-straight top three finish. Jannika John grabbed second in the 6,000-meter race on a 21:04.5 time and Verity Ockenden was right behind in third place 21:04.9 mark.  Abilene Christian (43 points) took the top spot on the women's side, and Stephen F. Austin (52) took second place in both races.
 
First-team All-Southland Conference honors were given to Aouani, John, Ockenden and Dunbar; to earn first team honors, a runner had to finish in the top five. Second-team awards were given to Chalmers, Steffenson and Riker. John, Ockeden and Dunbar were all first-team all-league honorees in 2014 as well.
 
Aouani paced SFA's Charles Mathenge, who was the league's top returning runner with LU's Sam Stabler graduating, for the first two laps, and then made a move and distanced himself from the Lumberjack during the third and final trip. 
 
His championship run gave Lamar its third-straight individual championship after Stabler did it in 2014 and Matt Johnsen in 2013, and  was the ninth Southland Conference individual champion from Lamar. LU's team championship was the 14^th (SLC) in program history, the next closest mark is McNeese State's eight.
 
"Three individual champions in three years, and all of them different guys says a lot about your program," said cross country coach Tony Houchin. "When you lose a big gun at the front like Sam Stabler, you hope that someone will step up and fill the hole. For us, it just so happened to be a freshman."
 
Knowing that in order to win the team would have to be in a pack and finish high, Dunbar, Chalmers, Steffenson and Riker tightened up and rounded out the five runners scored within 26 seconds of each other.  Dunbar's time was 24:51.9, and Chalmers marked a career-high 25:04.9 time. Freshman Steffensen crossed at 25:09.8 and Riker rounded out the group at 25:17.6.
 
"The team strategy unfolded exactly like I thought it would," said Houchin. "We were behind to start, but that is what we expected. We had the pieces in place and that allowed us to race aggressively."
 
Freshman Connor Maclean finished 16^th with a time of 25:39.4, Stu Ferguson was 30^th at 26:12.4 and Freddie Gasbarri was 32^nd on a 26:13.9 mark.
 
Sophomore Evelyn Chavez finished 11^th on the women's side with a time of 21:42.3. Georgia Tuckefield (22^nd) and Meghan DuPree (47^th) rounded out the scored runners with 22:42.9 and 23:51.1 times, respectively. Molly Betmead was 55^th on a time of 24:09.2 and Alexandra Sokolova finished with a 25:10.9 mark.
 
"With the women coming in as the defending champs, you always hope to have a good race, but credit ACU.  They ran a great race," said Houchin. "Jannika and Verity ran the kind of races that we talked about going in.  They did everything we could ask of them.
 
"If third place at your league championships is a down year, then your program is in great shape," he said.
 
Abilene Christian's Alexandra Hackett was the women's individual champion on a 20:26.6 time. The Wildcats had three runners in the top seven, which led them to the team championship. Incarnate Word (114) was fourth behind Lamar, followed by McNeese State (130), Central Arkansas (150), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (181), Sam Houston State (194), Houston Baptist (202), Southeastern Louisiana (304), Nicholls (355) and New Orleans (355).
 
McNeese State (79) was third on the men's side in front of Central Arkansas (129), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (147), Houston Baptist (177), Sam Houston State (198), Incarnate Word (223), Abilene Christian (250), Southeastern Louisiana (289), Northwestern State (291) and New Orleans (318).
 
Next time out for the Lamar University will be at the NCAA South Central Regionals held at Texas A&M on Nov. 13 at the Dale Watts Cross Country Course.