SFA Primed To Open Championship Season
11/2/2008 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Nov. 2, 2008
NACOGDOCHES, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin cross country teams will begin the championship portion of their season Monday with the Southland Conference Championships at Piney Woods Country Club. The meet is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. with the women's 6,000-meter race. The men's 8,000-meter run will follow at 9:45.
"Our goal from the first of the season was to take them through all these different things with the objective of being as fit and as confident as possible for this portion of the season," said SFA head coach Lou Snelling. "I think we're as fit as we can be right now, because everything we've done this season was aimed at conference and regionals."
Both teams performed well at the SLC Pre-Conference Championships on Oct. 13. The Lumberjacks and Ladyjacks both posted team victories, each with a score of 21 points.
In the men's race, sophomore Dennis Yeats led a near-sweep of the top five positions with his first-place time of 25:59 on the 8,000-meter course. He was followed by junior Keith Mahipala and redshirt freshmen Mitch Ownbey and Logan Smart in second, third and fourth place, respectively.
The Ladyjacks also took four of the top five slots, led by true freshman Stephanie Ganter, who completed the 6,000-meter course in 22:36 to finish second. She was chased by sophomore Amy Shackelford, true freshman Brette Fleming-Wood and sophomore Meredith Blocker.
The pre-conference performance came against a small field that included only two SLC teams, but, for Snelling, his team's race against the course was more important than the race against the competition. SFA trains at Piney Woods every week, but the pre-conference meet was its first chance to race on the track.
"Getting to race on the course itself just adds to our confidence," the coach said. "We know what to expect. This is definitely one of those courses where that's valuable. There are courses out there where it's flat, and it doesn't matter as much to race there beforehand. But with the hills at Piney Woods and some of the sight lines being what they are, experience on this course helps a lot."
Earlier in the season, the youthful SFA squads got some big-race experience with meets at Texas A&M and Auburn. Both teams finished in the top 10 at each meet with the men recording a second-place showing at A&M.
"With a young team like ours, getting that experience against some of those nationally ranked squads at A&M and at Auburn was important," Snelling said. "We gained a whole lot from it."
Results from Monday's races will be available online at www.southland.org, as well as www.sfajacks.com.
-- SFA --
