THIBODAUX, La. - Putting up strong performances in their final regular season meet, Lamar University's men's and women's cross country teams would each finish second place in the Southland Conference Championship Meet hosted by Nicholls. LU would also have five members achieve all-conference honors from their meet.
The women's team finished second place overall with 87 points, which bested UIW by four points. The University of New Orleans won the overall team title with 32 points. Three members would finish in the top 10 as
Yasmin Austridge led the way with a fourth-place finish just 75 tenths over the 21-minute mark.
Jillian Howard took ninth with 21:22.74 seconds while
Nia Clatworthy finished one second and one spot behind (10th; 21:23.90). Austridge claimed first-team all-conference honors while Howard and Clatworthy were both named second team all-conference.
Mykayla Mims scored in the top 30 as her 27th place finish was a result of her time of 22:22.71.
Ashleigh Willis finished 37th at 23:17.46 while
Jazaline Ayala (56th; 25:49.38) and
Natalee Bergeron (60th; 26:24.33) scored in the top 60.
"Today was a great day for our women," said assistant coach
Andrew Sweeney. "We've believed all year we could come home with a trophy and had a game plan that we were prepared to execute out there. Our top women asserted themselves from the gun, and our fourth and fifth ran extremely gutsy in the final stretch to get it done. It's really exciting seeing how much this team has grown in a year, being able to walk away as conference runners-up."
Meanwhile, the men would also finish second place with 72 points only trailing UIW by 10 points.
George Wheeler (23:49.96) threatened to claim the individual title until he was bested by 84 tenths of a second from Dennis Kipngeno of Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Wheeler's second place finish would get him first team honors from the conference.
Eli Peveto also finished in the top 10 as his sixth-place time of 24:16.66 earned him second team honors by the conference.
Conor Smith placed 16th at 24:47.83 while
Hayden Eubank (25:06.97) and
Geovany Cisneros (25:16.84) ran 22nd and 26th place respectively.
Jonathan Rivera (33rd; 25:46.23) and
Alejandro Villalva (39th; 26:02.30) each cracked the top 40 while
Aaron Saenz (27:09.50) rounded out the meet for LU in 60th place.
"Our men have had the goal of winning a conference title all year, but UIW ran a fantastic race by establishing themselves up front right off the line and holding position to the very end," assistant coach Sweeney said. "Second place is still a great accomplishment considering how close the top four teams were, and with only 3 returners on our roster from last year I was really proud of the way our freshmen handled themselves at a championship meet. They gained a lot of valuable experience, and we're excited to get back after it at the NCAA Regional Meet."
