SWOSU to Host LSC Cross Country Meet October 22

October 11, 2005

Weatherford, OK – Southwestern Oklahoma State University will host more than 120 runners from 18 teams as the annual running of the Lone Star Conference Cross Country Championships are set for Saturday, Oct. 22 in Weatherford. The meet, in Weatherford for the first time, will be run on, around and alongside Prairie West Golf Course beginning that morning.

The men’s race will cover 8,000 meters and will start at 9:30 a.m. The women’s race will follow at 10:30 a.m. and will be 6,000 meters.

Abilene Christian, currently ranked No. 3 in the latest NCAA Division II rankings, appears to be a sure thing aiming for its 15th consecutive men’s championship. The Wildcats have five of the six best times so far this season led Kenya sophomore Nicodemus Naimadu, the defending NCAA Division II champion.

East Central University, the nation’s 15th ranked team, led by Ada sophomore Josh Stewart is the favorite to finish second.

On the women’s side, 13th ranked ACU will be looking for its fifth straight league crown. The Wildcats are led by California senior Trina Cox and Ukraine junior Olha Kryv’Yak.

SWOSU’s own Rachel Ingram, a sophomore from Springfield, Mo., will have a shot at the individual crown running on her home course. Ingram has already won two meet titles, including the prestigious Oklahoma State University Jamboree where she finished first in a field of 214 runners in the college division.

She finished 63 seconds behind Cox and 23 seconds behind Kryv’Yak in their only head-to-head competition this year at the ACU Classic, a three-mile race at Abilene’s Sherrod Park on Sept. 9.