Southeastern's Kapkiai Shines at South Alabama Meet
Dorcus Kapkiai was the top female finisher at the Azalea City Classic.
9/19/2009 5:17:34 PM
MOBILE, Ala. -- Southeastern Louisiana’s Dorcus Kapkiai captured the individual women’s title at the Azalea City Classic cross country meet, hosted by South Alabama, with a time of 19:35.2 in the 5K event. As a team, the Southeastern women finished in 3rd place, while the Lion men captured 2nd place.
Kapkiai topped her closest challenger by over nine seconds (Krista Moylan of Southern Miss, 19:44.8). Two other Lady Lions were near the top of the standings, as Naomi Jeruto came in 8th at 20:37.5 andKim Gastinell placed 10th at 20:55.5. Freshman Bethany Burst was also impressive (23:16.5). Ernestine Carodine (23:41.0) rounded out the five Southeastern athletes in the scoring process.
Southern Miss captured the women’s team championship, followed by runner-up South Alabama.
“We placed three women in the top 10, which bodes well,” head coachSean Brady said. “Dorcus ran a beautiful race with an even tempo. Although the conditions were muddy, she cruised. With 1,000 meters to go, she pulled away from the field.”
SLU’s men trailed only South Alabama in the team standings, and did so despite missing two of the school’s top runners. Reigning Southland Conference outdoor athlete of the year Henry Rop and Nelphat Boltboth were scratched due to illness.
“I don’t know if we would have won it with those two,” Brady said. “But we had pretty good performances out of our guys.”
Individually, South Alabama’s Micah Tirop (15:43.2) and Zac Edwards (15:51.5) led the way, followed by top Southeastern finisher Kalphys Kemboi (16:19.5). Brady was especially pleased with the performance by freshman Jesse McDavitt. The Baton Rouge native finished 9th with a time of 17:37.7. Scott Richardson (17:52.1),Kyle Golden (17:54.2) and M.J. Ahmad (18:31.4) also scored for Southeastern.