ULM men finish fourth, women 33rd in final meet before conferences

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The ULM cross country team completed its final race weekend before the Sun Belt Conference meet with a fourth place finish by the men at the Northwestern State Invitational on Friday and a 33^rd overall finish by the women at the Chile Pepper Invitational on Saturday. The ULM men finished in fourth after tallying 88 points in the four-mile Northwestern State Invitational at the Walter Ledet Track Complex in Natchitoches, La. Sophomore Seth Hall paced the Warhawks with a 12^th-place finish and a time of 22:35. Freshman Richard Sanders also finished in the top-15, placing 13^th overall with a time of 22:55. ULM’s women’s team concluded the weekend with a 33^rd-place finish out of 41 teams at the traditionally tough Chile Pepper Invitational in Fayetteville, Ark. on Saturday. Freshman Claire Clark again paced the Warhawk women, finishing the race 113^th overall out of the more than 270 individuals. Clark ended the 6K course with a time of 23:26.5. Fellow freshman Janie Blackmon was the only other Warhawk to finish under the 25-minute mark, completing the course in 24:44.8. Texas Tech finished as the meet champions after placing three individuals in the top 10 including tallying the top two individual times. Host Arkansas, Virginia Tech, UC-Irvine and Oklahoma State rounded out the top five team finishes. Teams from Tulane (16), LSU (22), Louisiana-Lafayette (32) and Centenary (40) were also present at the meet. Both men’s and women’s squads return to action on Saturday, Oct. 27 for the Sun Belt Conference meet in Bowling Green, Ky.  Northwestern State Invitational (Men’s 4 Mile)12 – Seth Hall, 22:3513 – Richard Sanders, 22:5518 – Mark Williams, 23:5922 – Mychal Word, 26:2123 – Ennocent Ekara, 26:37 Northwestern State Invitational (Women’s 2 Mile)12 – Whitney McKinney, 15:20 Chile Pepper Invitational (Women’s 6K)113 – Claire Clark, 23:26.5176 – Janie Blackmon, 24:44.8188 – Amanda Bartlett, 25:03.6197 – Jessica Baldino, 25:19.0225 – Brittany Blackmon, 26:20.4