Bruce-Littlewood takes individual title at Rice Invitational

HOUSTON – Life without All-American cross country runner David Rooney for McNeese State continued in a successful way on Friday when Alex Bruce-Littlewood took the individual championship at the 38th annual Just F. Cooper Memorial Rice Invitational.
 
Bruce-Littlewood, who earned all-region honors in 2012 and was the silver medalist at the Southland Conference cross country championships, ran a 16:44 in the 6k race, beating out Matt Perri of Houston Baptist by four seconds.
 
"It was great to see Littlewood win after finishing in the top three the last two year," said head coach Brendon Gilroy.  "This is a big win for him."
 
As a team, the Cowboys finished fifth in a field of 14 teams that featured some of the best in the region.
 
Newcomer Ryan Holroyd was the second Cowboy runner to finish as he placed 20th overall with a time of 17:24.  He was followed by freshman Matthew Stephenson (23rd, 17:28), sophomore Stephen Kerr (27th, 17:33), junior Alex Kiptoo (29th, 17:35), freshman Luke Johnston (30th, 17:35), freshman Oliver Jones (59th, 18:06), junior Nicholas Kiprono (67th, 18:17), sophomore Alfred Bartie (74th, 18:21), junior Andrew Kogut (107th, 19:01)
 
Rice won the team title with 77 points followed by Texas A&M (87), Stephen F. Austin (89), Lamar (89), McNeese (94), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (133), Houston (147), Houston Baptist (236), TCU (243), Texas State (278), Sam Houston State (281), Texas A&M-International (342), Texas A&M-Kingsville (397), Texas Southern (449).
 
On the women's side, the Cowgirls finished eighth in the 14-team field with 217 points.
 
Senior Amy Talbot led the McNeese runners in the 4k race with a 13th place finish and a time of 15:37.  Leigh Lattimore of Lamar won the event with a time of 14:30.
 
"I thought the girls ran well as a team," said Gilroy.  "We were running without two of our best runners in (Allison) Crawford and (Angelina) Covington."
 
Other Cowgirl finishers had sophomore Laura Casey placing 51st with a 16:32, junior Corissa Storms (58th, 16:44), junior Lauren Cooper (69th, 17:02), freshman Alison Smegal (72nd, 17:11), junior Danielle Jones (90th, 17:44), junior Jill Biagina (96th, 18:00).
 
Texas A&M won the women's title with 29 points followed by Rice (64), Lamar (80), Stephen F. Austin (124), Sam Houston State (152), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (160), Texas State (212), McNeese (217), Houston (246), Houston Baptist (267), Nicholls State (311), Texas A&M-Kingsville (351), TCU (368) and Prairie View (385).