CLINTON, Miss. – The Southeastern Louisiana University women's cross country team won the Watson Ford Invitational Saturday morning, while the men's team finished second behind Arkansas-Pine Bluff. The meet, hosted by Mississippi College, was Southeastern's final tune-up before the Southland Conference championships.
Southeastern's Dorcus Kapkiai, who won her second race of the season, clocked a time of 23:18.54 in the 6K event. The sophomore from Eldoret, Kenya, previously took top individual honors at the Azalea City Classic in Mobile, Ala., on Sept. 19. Nearly a full minute later, teammate
Naomi Jeruto crossed the finish line to claim second place (24:10.95).
Kim Gastinell gave Southeastern three runners in the top five, placing fifth with a time of 24:31.73. Freshman
Bethany Burst had another solid outing (12
th place, 26:18.13).
Courtney Schultheis was the final scorer for SLU (18
th place, 27:18.58).
As a team, the Southeastern women ended with 36 points. The Lady Lions were followed in the Division I competition by six Southwestern Athletic Conference schools: Grambling State (51 points), Jackson State (64), Arkansas-Pine Bluff (94), Southern (117), Mississippi Valley State (159) and Alcorn State (161).
Lion junior
Henry Rop was the first place individual on the men's side, completing the 8K event in 25:37.73.
Kalphys Kemboi, two weeks after his win at the LSU Invitational, claimed fourth place (26:06.72). Other scorers for SLU were
Nelphat Boit (16
th place, 27:58.58),
Jesse McDavitt (28
th place, 28:45.93) and Scott Richardson (38
th place, 29:30.23).
The men finished with 76 points, well behind meet champion the Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions, who had 30 points. Mississippi Valley State (82 points), Louisiana Tech (86), Grambling State (111), Tulane (126), Jackson State (191), Alcorn State (229) and Southern (244).
Choctaw Trails, a course that has hosted national championship races for Division II, presented sloppy conditions. The Clinton area had received a lot of rainfall over the past couple of weeks. The wet stuff was falling for most of the morning, but cleared just before the start of this morning's event.
“We haven't found a dry course yet,” head coach
Sean Brady said. “So these times aren't indicative of what we could run, but it's all about competition. We're happy to beat teams from around the region.”
Southeastern now has nearly three full weeks to prepare for the conference meet in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Oct. 31.
