<font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">NATCHITOCHES - Northwestern State runners
Mark Dotson and
Lawana Perkins have won the Southland Conference men's and women's cross country athlete of the week awards, the conference office announced Tuesday. </font>
<p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Dotson and Perkins are the first duo from a league team to sweep the conference weekly awards this season. Dotson and Perkins each claimed their first awards of the year giving Northwestern four athlete of the week honors the season, the most among conference cross country teams.</font></p>
<p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Dotson, a product of Alexandria-Menard and a sophomore transfer from Xavier University in New Orleans, ran a 15:47.5 in the three-mile run to lead the Demons to a second place finish among five teams in the Demon Invitational.</font></p>
<p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">Perkins won the individual women's title with a time of 18:41.51 in the three-mile race over the same course used next month at the Louisiana High School Cross Country Championships. </font></p>
<p><font face="arial,helvetica,sans-serif" size="3">The native of Baytown, Texas, led the Lady Demons to first among eight teams, with their 36 points ahead of in-state rival Louisiana-Lafayette with 39 points. </font></p>
<p><font face="Arial" size="3">They will run Thursday at the 2010 Southland Conference Cross Country Championships in Beaumont, Texas.</font></p>
