NATCHITOCHES -- Led by a 1-2 finish from Karensa Ellis and Lawana Perkins, Northwestern State ran away with the 2010 NSU Invitational cross country women's team championship Monday afternoon, while Grambling took the men's title at the Demon Hills Golf Course.
The Lady Demons scored 29 to edge Grambling's 36 in the 6,000-meter women's race. Louisiana Tech was third with 81 points, followed by Centenary (93) and Louisiana College (134).
Grambling posted a 24-point total in the 8,000-meter men's competition, trailed by Northwestern (42), Centenary (59) and Louisiana College (115). Louisiana Tech didn't compete in the men's race.
Grambling's Darwin Price (26:31.5) held off the Demons' Mark Dotson (26:32.6) to capture the men's individual title.
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Mark Dotson |
Ellis, who dropped out due to illness in NSU's last meet at LSU nine days ago, appeared back to form with a winning 23:55.5 time over the rolling terrain. Perkins was two seconds back (23:57.8).
"It was a good race. We need to close the gap between 1-7, and get our 3-4-5 closer to 1-2. Karensa and Lawana ran together and pushed each other," said first-year Lady Demons coach Heather McDaniel. "We didn't want to run all out today with another meet coming up Saturday, but they ran well."
Rounding out the scorecard for the Lady Demons were Ali Fontenot (sixth, 24:51.6), Andrea Warren (ninth, 25:41.6) and Sarah Emory (11th, 25:53.4). Becca Meehan was right behind (12th, 26:04.5) with Shana Lee 17th in 28:27.3. Kirstie Jones and Courtney Hirschberger did not run due to injuries.
"I thought our runners all ran well, but it was on a bit of a tough course, so our times weren't as fast. We're looking to get some fast times on Saturday (at McNeese), but we continue to train through our meets with the conference championshps just three weeks away," said McDaniel. "We're in a good spot now."
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| Ali Fontenot, Andrea Warren (right) |
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Dotson was joined in the men's top 10 by teammates Jason Enright (seventh, 28;26.3) and Chris Lanier (ninth, 28:45.0). NSU's other two scorers were Travis Plum (11th, 29:42.3) and Kyle Lessig (13th, 30:05.9). Robert Carrier (18th, 32:11.9) and Ricky Trent (20th, 33:07.9) also ran for the Demons.
Said NSU men's coach Leon Johnson: "I thought we ran well, particularly Mark Dotson, Chris Lanier and Jason Enright. We are making progress. Grambling has a very good team, and we improved against them compared to the last time we raced against them. We weren't able to compete our Nos. 3 and 4 runners (Cameron Mehl, Zachary Burns) because of injuries, and that affected our team score. Hopefully we'll have them back for Saturday morning at McNeese."
The next home meet for Northwestern is the Demon Invitational on Friday, Oct. 22.
Photo Credit: Gary Hardamon