BEAUMONT, Texas -- As expected, Mark Dotson and Lawana Perkins were the top finishers Thursday for Northwestern State at the 2010 Southland Conference Cross Country Championships over the Bayou Din Golf Club course.
Dotson ran 32nd in his first Southland championship. The sophomore from Alexandria-Menard clocked 26:50 over the 8,000-meter course.
Perkins, a junior from Baytown, Texas, took 39th in the 6,000-meter women's race with a 23:31 time.
The other four scoring NSU men finished 60th (freshman Jason Enright, 28:23), 67th (sophomore Kyle Lessig, 29:27), 69th (freshman Travis Plumb, 29:40) and 76th (senior Dusty Dischler, 30:52). Also running for the Demons were sophomore Chris Lanier (77th, 31:09) and freshman Robert Carrier (80th, 31:58).
The Lady Demons' scorecard was completed by sophomore Karensa Ellis (66th, 24:47), sophomore Ali Fontenot (71st, 25:15), senior Andrea Warren (75th, 25:32), and freshman Becca Meehan (81st, 27:08). Other runners were senior Courtney Herschberger (82nd, 28:51), and sophomores Sarah Emory (83rd, 28:57) and Kirstie Jones (84th, 29:30).
The Demons were 11th, ahead of Nicholls State 304-378, to round out the men's team standings. The Lady Demons were 12th with
The Lamar men's team and the Stephen F. Austin women's team won team titles. Texas A&M-Corpus Christi sophomore Patrick Kimeli claimed the men's individual title, while Texas-Arlington freshman Emily Koenig won the women's individual title.
The Lamar men scored 38 points, matching their winning score from last year's championship meet. McNeese State repeated as the men's runner-up for the second consecutive season with 70 points while Texas-San Antonio came in third, with 77 points, for the second consecutive season. Stephen F. Austin placed fourth (114) and A&M-Corpus Christi (134) came in fifth.
Kimeli, a native of Eldoret, Kenya, finished the 8-kilometer run in a time of 24:47 and joined former two-time Southland champion Shadrack Songok (2006-07) as the only Islanders to win the Southland cross country 8k event.
The Ladyjack women scored 34 points to win their league-leading sixth cross country title and first since consecutive crowns in 2002 and 2003. A&M-Corpus Christi, the three-time defending champions, came in second with 78 points. McNeese State placed third (116 points), followed by UT Arlington (137) in fourth and UTSA (139) in fifth. The 44 points separating the first-place Ladyjacks and the runner-up Islanders is the largest winning margin at the Southland championships since SFA last won the title in 2003.
