photo courtesy by Hardy Meredith, Stephen F. Austin public affairs office
NACOGDOCHES, Texas – Naumy Bor's 18th-place individual finish was the top performance Friday for Northwestern State as the Lady Demons were the top Louisiana finisher at the 2006 Southland Conference Cross Country Championships.
Bor, a junior, covered the 6,000-meter course in 23:41. She led the Lady Demons to ninth place in a 12-team field, ahead of Southeastern Louisiana, McNeese State and Nicholls State. The Demons were 11th. Lamar swept the team titles.
For the Northwestern women, the other four scoring runners were freshman Shannon Foley (36th, 24:24), senior Lesley Lambert (40th, 24:46), sophomore Ashley Terrell (55th, 25:58) and freshman JoAnne Penn (67th, 27:51). Sophomore Mary Adeeko (73rd, 30:23) and freshman Rebekah Williams (75th, 30:48) rounded out the entries for the Lady Demons Friday.
In the 8,000 meter men's race, the Demons' top runner was sophomore Chris Pearson (45th, 28:16). Junior Aaron Heflin was next (52nd, 28:48), followed on the scorecard by freshman Matt Person (64th, 30:30), freshman Galen Mudd (65th, 30:51) and freshman Cade Gentry (67th, 31:10). Sophomore decathlete Ash-Lee Michael James ran 72nd in 35:18 for NSU.
"Four of our top five women ran their season's best coming though 5,000 meters but didn't sustain that pace," said first-year cross country coach William Rogers. "Four of our top five guys ran faster than they have, but we couldn't match the competition.
"I thought the girls had chance to be in the upper half and the guys had a chance to be the top Louisiana team. We didn't get there. It's a little consolation that the women were the top Louisiana finisher," said Rogers. "Our men got closer to McNeese (seven points, two minutes pack time) than we were earlier in the season but we didn't close it out like we wanted to.
"Naumy Bor ran a pretty strong race and Chris Pearson, having only run four days since Aug. 26 due to injury, really competed remarkably well," he said.
"We've definitely got a long way to go to be a competitive team in the conference, but I am determined to get us back there. I see us moving toward becoming a team that has a chance to contend for the championship in future seasons," said Rogers.
Shadrack Songok of Texas A&M Corpus Christi won the men's race in 24:20. The women's winner was Clerc Koenck of Lamar in 21:35.