Stephen F. Austin
Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islander Opener
Cross Country Opens 2009 Season
9/4/2009 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Sept. 4, 2009
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin cross country teams kicked off their season Friday in the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Islander Relays. The two-man relay-format event saw a Ladyjack team finish second in the women's race and a pack of three men's tandems crack the top seven.
The meet featured runners from SFA, UTSA and host team A&M- Corpus. The West Guth Park course is the same one to be used at this year's Southland Conference Championships.
"We came down here to get a really good look at the course and have a workout in the meantime, and that's what we accomplished today," SFA cross country coach Lou Snelling said.
In the women's race, the team of sophomore Stephanie Ganter and junior Amy Shackelford finished second with a time of 26:57 on the 8,600-meter course. The route consisted of three circuits of increasing distance for each runner.
The team of junior Marie Flores and freshman Haley Parsons ran ninth with a time of 28:33, junior Megan Jenkins and freshman Brette Fleming-Wood took 10th with a time of 28:38, and redshirt freshman Randi Wymer and junior Meredith Blocker came in 15 seconds later in 11th.
In the men's race, senior Keith Mahipala teamed with redshirt freshman Adam Saloom to lead the Lumberjacks with a fifth-place time of 41:34. The men's track consisted of two 3,200-meter loops for each runner, a total distance of 12,800 meters.
Junior Dennis Yeats and sophomore Logan Smart chased them home two seconds later in sixth, and sophomores Harmon McClanahan and Xavier Rodriguez were seventh with a time of 41:45. Sophomore Mitch Ownbey and redshirt freshman Dixon Knouse finished 12th with a time of 43:25. Ownbey was hampered by asthma during the race.
"We had a lot of solid performances on both sides," Snelling said. "I really held them all back on their first legs. In terms of placing, that's why everything shook out the way it did.
"Every single one of our guys had a negative split for their second leg. The girls' race was harder to quantify with the varying lengths of their laps, but it was a good workout. We did what we came here to do."
SFA will run the course one more time Saturday morning before heading home. The Lumberjacks and Ladyjacks will return to action on Oct. 3 when they travel to Stillwater, Okla., to race in the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree.
-- SFA --
