BEAUMONT, Texas -- Lawana Perkins and Mark Dotson, the reigning Southland Conference cross country athletes of the week, lead young Northwestern State teams into the 2010 Southland Conference Championships Thursday morning.
Teams from the 12-member conference will race at Beaumont's Bayou Din Golf Club. The women's 6-kilometer race will begin at 9 a.m. and the men's 8-kilometer race will follow at 9:45. Perkins, a junior, and sophomore Karensa Ellis are the top runners for the Lady Demons. Others entered from NSU are senior Andrea Warren, sophomores Sarah Emory, Ali Fontenot, Kirstie Jones and Becca Meehan, and freshmen Shana Lee and Samantha Newell. For the Demons, Dotson has been the top finisher each meet this season after transferring from Xavier-New Orleans. The sophomore is joined by senior teammates Dusty Dischler and Cameron Mehl, fellow sophomores Chris Lanier and Kyle Lessig, and freshmen Zach Burns, Robert Carrier, Jason Enright, Travis Plumb and Ricky Trent. The Lamar men's team is looking for its fifth consecutive Southland title and the Texas A&M-Corpus Christi women's team will try for its record fourth straight title. Five of the top-10 men's finishers and seven of the top-10 women's runners return from last season. Dischler and Ellis were the top finishers for Northwestern at the 2009 Southland championships.