LAKE CHARLES -- Lawana Perkins and Mark Dotson were the top finishers Saturday morning for Northwestern State at the Ascics McNeese Cowboy Stampede cross country meet.
Perkins topped the Lady Demons for the second time in three meets, while Dotson continued to be the No. 1 runner for the Demons in all four meets in his first season at NSU. Perkins, a junior from Baytown, Texas, was 12th individually with an 18:45.56 time over the 5,000-meter course. For the first time in her NSU career, sophomore Karensa Ellis was not the Lady Demons' first runner in a race that she finished, as she came across in 22nd place and second on the Northwestern scorecard with a 19:29.33 clocking. Dotson, a sophomore transfer from Alexandria-Menard, covered the 4-mile men's course in 20:37.50, finishing 18th. The men's individual champ was David Rooney of McNeese in 18:44.80. The women's winner was Emily Koenig of Texas-Arlington in 17:40.62. Rounding out the Lady Demons' scorecard were Ali Fontenot (29th, 19:57.73), Sarah Emory (38th, 20:53.12) and Andrea Warren (40th, 20:57.61). Other NSU women finishing were Becca Meehan (43rd, 21:15.68), Courtney Herschberger (52nd, 23:27.71) and Shana Lee (53rd, 23:39.86). Along with Dotson, the scoring runners for the NSU men were Travis Plumb (40th, 22:24.42), Chris Lanier (45th, 22:56.60), Robert Carrier (46th, 22:59.79) and Kyle Lessig (48th, 23:08.33). Other Demons finishing were Dusty Dischler (50th, 23:28.84), Ricky Trent (23:30.47) and Cameron Mehl (53rd, 23:53.18). The Texas-Arlington women and McNeese men won the team championships. The Lady Demons finished sixth and the Demons were seventh. In the men's race, McNeese recorded a near-perfect score of 18, followed distantly by LSU and Louisiana Tech, tied for second at 74. UTA was fourth (104), followed by Central Arkansas (149), Southeastern Louisiana (153), Northwestern (195) and Louisiana-Lafayette (199). The UTA women won with 38 points, trailed by LSU (63), UCA (66), Southeastern (102), ULL (104) and Northwestern (121) with McNeese failing to finish five runners and not recording a score. NSU runs again next Saturday at Centenary.