BEAUMONT, Texas - Southland Conference Coach of the Year Andrew Sweeney plans to send 14 runners from the Lamar University men's and women's cross country teams to compete in the NCAA South Central Regionals Friday. This event will take place at the Dale Watts '71 Cross Country Course in College Station.
 
Two weeks ago, the women repeated as Southland Conference champions by posting 43 points to best second place Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (59) by 16 points. LU had three runners in the top eight led by Nia Clatworthy, who placed second (20:35.47) and trailed the overall winner by five seconds. Clatworthy would be tabbed as an all-conference first team member along with Cara Inch, who finished sixth at 21:16.19.  
 
Inca Padfield was the recipient of the SLC Newcomer of the Year after crossing the line in eighth with a time of 21:34.83. This performance garnered her a spot on the All-SLC second team, which she shared with teammates Emma Powell (13th; 22:10.92) and Annabel Hobday (14th; 22:15.35). These five women plus MyKayla Mims (22:49.08) and Ashton Rainey (22:50.40), who ran 27th and 28th respectively, will represent the Cardinals in the regional meet.
 
In last season's regional meet, the women finished 12th with 347 points as Inch was the top runner placing 28th at 21:26.2. Clatworthy (48th; 22:04.1). Hobday (75th; 22:34.2), Rainey (81st; 22:39.6), and Mims (115th; 23:23.2) also competed in last season's meet.
 
Meanwhile, the men will also send seven runners to the regionals after scoring 146 points to finish sixth at the conference title meet. Freddy Richardson led the way by earning second place and an all-conference first-team nod at 24:41.65. He was the lone male runner for the Cardinals in last year's regional meet and finished 32nd with a time of 26:26.4.

Richardson will be joined by Lloyd Sheppard-Brown, whose 11th place finish (25:29.95) was enough for him to receive second team recognition. Also running in the meet will be Riley Trent (46th; 27:19.20), Adrian Hahn Vadstein (47th; 27:30.62), Alexis Rodriguez (49th; 27:32.35), Andres Padron (53rd; 27:44.38). and Treyton Showen (61st; 28:14.3).


The women will open things up at 9:00 a.m with the 6K meet while the men will follow an hour later for the 10K event.
 

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