WACO, Texas – Southeastern Louisiana’s cross country season came to an end Saturday at the NCAA south central regional meet at Cottonwood Creek Golf Club. The Lion men earned a 17th place finish, topping LSU and Southland Conference rival UT Arlington.
Arkansas captured the men’s regional championship. Texas, Lamar, Texas A&M and Stephen F. Austin rounded out the top five.
Henry Rop led the Southeastern contingent, crossing the finish line with a time of 31:54.8 in the 10K event, good for 20th place. Nelphat Boit followed in 66th place (33:37.4), Kyle Golden in 127th (37:04.4), Jaron Ortego in 129th (37:26.5) and Jessie McDavitt in 133rd (38:29.0).
“Overall it was a good day,” head coach Sean Brady said. “Any time you can get your young guys to meets like this and expose them to this level of competition, it only makes them better. It will bode well for us in the future. We’ll return everybody off this squad for next year.”
The Lions were without Kalphys Kemboi, who suffered an injury earlier in the week. He was Southeastern’s top performer at the Southland Conference championships, coming in sixth place on Oct. 31. Kemboi’s season highlights also included a win at the LSU Invitational on Sept. 26.
“I was happy that without our number one guy, we were able to get out there and compete a bit,” Brady said. “We were able to beat a couple of teams. That shows we not only had some quality performances this year, but that we’re a well rounded cross country team.”
The Lady Lions were represented by Dorcus Kapkiai and Naomi Jeruto at regionals. Kapkiai finished 52nd in the 6K event, clocking a time of 23:01.8. Jeruto came in 107th place at 24:38.9.
SMU won the women’s team competition, followed by Baylor, Arkansas, Texas and Rice in the top five.
Next for Southeastern comes the indoor track and field schedule, which begins Dec. 5 at Arkansas State.
MEN'S 10K RESULTS
WOMEN'S 6K RESULTS