Published: November 09, 2009 05:16 pm      

ECU men place 11th; Lady Tigers 13th at South Central Regional Cross Country Championships

ABILENE, Texas—East Central University’s Jim Sutrick clocked in at 32:20.69 for 19th place overall while the Tigers finished 11th in the team standings Saturday at the 10-kilomter NCAA Division II South Central Regional Cross Country Championships.

The Tigers redeemed their Lone Star Conference Championship appearance from two weeks ago (ninth place or next to last) by beating out three other LSC teams – Texas A&M-Commerce (14th place), Angelo State (15th) and West Texas A&M (17th) – on Saturday. Those three teams finished ahead of ECU at the LSC.

“I wasn’t really sure we were going to take our team. I thought about just taking three or four of our top runners. We were beat up and I didn’t want to go up there and get last place,” said ECU head coach Steve Sawyer. “But they responded today. From two weeks ago to today, we were two totally different teams. We redeemed our conference appearance.

Also for the Tigers, Joel Dutton placed 58th overall with a time of 33:41.81, followed by teammates Chase McMichael, 69th in 34:16.67; Austin Christian, 80th in 34:31.50; senior Tyler Jackson, 83rd in 34:35.2; and Mitchell Haun, 89th in 34:46.71.

“Jim ran well. He was just four spots from all-region. We’re excited where Jim ran. We look forward to seeing what he can do next year,” Sawyer said. “Kudos to Tyler. He ran a great race. Since I’ve been at East Central, he’s been one of the best leaders I’ve seen. We hate to see him go.”

Missouri Southern captured the team title with a score of 56, followed by Southwest Baptist (48), Pittsburg State (86), Tarleton State (97), Cameron (224), Fort Hays State (227), Emporia State (231), Central Missouri (249), Eastern New Mexico (251), Abilene Christian (264), ECU (305), Incarnate Word (310), Northwest Missouri (314), Texas A&M-Commerce (353), Angelo State (370), Truman State (387), West Texas A&M (389), Newman (441) and Texas A&M-International (514).

Abilene Christian’s Amos Sang set the pace with a time of 29:53.23.

WOMEN

ECU senior Sarah Reihart closed out her career with a personal-best time of 23:25.57 for 41st place in the 6k South Central Regional Championships.

“We set a goal to get in the top 10, but we didn’t quite get there (13th place),” said Sawyer. “They ran really well as a team, but our region is really tough. We did well. We’re just young and going to get better.”

Freshman Hayley Jennings placed 51st for the Lady Tigers with a time of 23:35.79, followed by teammates Silvia Barkechir, 87th with a time of 24:40.29; Miranda Claxton, 93rd in 24:48.21; Andrea McKinney, 97th in 24:57.10; Carina Clementa, 102nd in 25:08.12; and Alex Kirkpatrick, 103rd in 25:12.91.

“I’m happy for Sarah with it being the fastest time of her career,” Sawyer said. “Silvia stepped it up for us today. She ran in our top three spot and she’s been our sixth or seventh.”

Missouri Southern’s Kimi Shank set the pace with a time of 20:59.05.

Missouri Southern, which swept the top three individual spots, also captured the team title with a score of 18. Dallas Baptist was second with 84, followed by Truman State (97), Pittsburg State (107), Northwest Missouri (188), Fort Hays State (245), Nebraska-Omaha (258), Midwestern State (280), Central Missouri (287) and Emporia State (287).

Angelo State was 11th with a 317, followed by West Texas A&M (325), ECU (355), Incarnate Word (366), Southwest Baptist (388), Central Oklahoma (396), Newman (423), Eastern New Mexico (447), Abilene Christian (499), Texas A&M-International (528) and Texas A&M-Commerce (609).