Stephen F. Austin
Southland Conference Championships
Ladyjacks Win Southland Championship
10/28/2010 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Oct. 28, 2010
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BEAUMONT, Texas - The Stephen F. Austin Ladyjack cross country team made history Thursday with a dominant performance at the Southland Conference Championships. SFA put four runners in the top seven of the race to win the team championship with a score of 34 points.
The next-best point total was UT Arlington's 78. With the win, the Ladyjacks now have more Southland Conference titles - six - than any other league program.
"I knew we had the potential to put up that kind of a result, but I thought we would need a really good race to do it," SFA coach Lou Snelling said. "To put four in the top 10 is great. Our goal all fall was to try and get three in the top 10, maybe four in the top 15, so we definitely exceeded that."
Led by sophomore transfer Lauren Smith's second-place finish, the Ladyjacks landed four All-Southland Conference honors. Junior Stephanie Ganter finished fifth, and fifth-year seniors Megan Jenkins and Amy Shackelford finished sixth and seventh, respectively, to ensure an SFA victory. Sophomore Randi Wymer wasn't far from an all-conference showing, taking 15th to round out the Ladyjack scoring runners.
"We made good decisions throughout the race," Snelling said. "Even as far as a mile in, we weren't in an amazing spot. Corpus got a really good start, and they had the advantage early. But we stayed patient the whole time and just gradually made our way to the front."
With Smith out front among the leaders pushing the pace for the entire race, the rest of the SFA pack was able to pick their spots on a windy day at Bayou Din Golf Club.
"We had a pretty neutral start, which is what we wanted," Snelling said. "We stayed focused really well in the middle of the race and didn't fall asleep. Toward the end what we wanted to do was close up in the back over the last mile. It was a tough time to make a move, going into the wind, but we did a good job there."
Smith, running her first Southland meet since transferring to SFA from Arizona, led for most of the race. She was passed late by eventual champion Emily Koenig of UT Arlington, but Smith put up an impressive time of 21:38 on the 6,000-meter course.
"She just went out from the gun and put herself up there," Snelling said. "She pushed the whole race, whether she was against the wind or going with it. She was just gutsy today. This is her best race of the season, so far."
Three spots behind Smith, Ganter clocked in at 21:44. The junior led SFA to a win at the Memphis Twilight Classic earlier this year before minor injuries forced her to sit out the Florida State Invitational two weeks ago.
"Steph is just getting better and better," Snelling said. "She's had a whole lot to deal with this season with some injury issues. Today, she was conservative early, which was smart. She, Megan and Shack all made good decisions."
Jenkins and Shackelford cruised in on Ganter's heels. Jenkins put up a time of 21:49, while Shackelford finished in 21:52. The pair of fifth-year seniors were running in their final conference championship race.
"The redshirt decisions obviously paid off today," Snelling said. "It doesn't always work out that way, but it did for us with these two. To have two fifth-year seniors in our top five is just amazing. You're talking about two girls who weren't phenomenal talents coming out of high school. They just came in and worked hard for five years. They really bought in to what we're doing here, and it paid off for them and for the team today."
Wymer closed out the scoring runners with a time of 22:18, just 14 seconds off a pace that would have landed an All-Southland honor. Senior Marie Flores was close behind, taking 17th with a time of 22:27. Classmate Meredith Blocker posted a time of 23:27 to finish 35th.
The team title is SFA's first since 2003 and moves the Ladyjacks out of a tie with UTSA for the most championships in Southland history. Thursday's performance marked the first time in school history that four Ladyjacks have finished in the top 10. The team score of 34 points is also a school record and the best score at a Southland meet since Lamar put up a score of 26 in 2005.
In the men's race, SFA put two runners in the top 16 and finished fourth with a team score of 114 points.
"We're a better team than that finish," Snelling said.
Senior Dennis Yeats was the first Lumberjack across the line with a time of 25:40 to finish 14th. Junior Xavier Rodriguez took 16th with a time of 25:51 on the 8,000-meter course. Rodriguez ran with the lead pack early in the race before dropping back toward the finish.
"Dennis missed one move that was probably the difference between finishing all-conference and not," Snelling said. "Other than that, he had a good race.
"X, tactically, could have been better, but he got out well, ran hard and was solid."
Junior Mitch Ownbey was the third Lumberjack to finish. He earned all-conference honors each of his first two years but came into Thursday's race slowed by an illness that almost prompted Snelling to hold him out. Ownbey finished 26th with a time of 26:28.
"For Mitch to have been as sick as he was this week and still come out and do everything he could to try and help the team - the kid's got a big heart," Snelling said.
Junior Adam Saloom took 30th with a time of 26:37, and freshman Moses Luevano was 31st, finishing in 26:40.
"Having Moses in our top five was good to see," Snelling said. "It's nice to have a true freshman step up at a championship meet."
Freshman Jonus Rodriguez was 35th with a time of 26:51. Junior Harmon McClanahan took 42nd with a time of 27:15, and Nathan Collier was 43rd, finishing in 27:20.
"We're better than we showed today, and we'll get the chance to prove that in a couple of weeks," Snelling said.
The `Jacks will be back in action Nov. 13 when they compete at the NCAA Regional Championships in Waco, Texas.
-- SFA --
