Campus News

W CROSS COUNTRY: Lady Tigers finish sixth at ASC Championships

MARSHALL, Texas (11/5/09) – ETBU first-year women’s cross country coach Natalie Bach-Prather and the Lady Tigers set a minimum team goal of maintaining their fifth- or sixth-place rating in the American Southwest Conference heading into last weekend’s conference championship meet in Clinton, Miss.

Mission accomplished.

ETBU finished the 2009 cross country season in sixth place in the ASC, with 10 teams competing at the conference championships held last Saturday at Choctaw Trails course in Clinton. For a team comprised primarily of young sophomores and freshman in Bach-Prather’s first season, the young coach was pleased with the final results last weekend.

"Overall I thought we did pretty good,” said Bach-Prather, a former Lady Tiger cross country runner herself. "I felt like we were prepared going in and we knew the times wouldn’t be fantastic due to the soaked course, but I think the girls handled it okay.”

The muddy, wet 6K course from all the recent rain in the area did slow down the times considerably, but Texas-Tyler managed to finish as ASC champions with an average time of 2:11:27.61. Second-place McMurry was next at 26:30.80, followed by third-place and host Mississippi College at 26:36.79.

Texas Lutheran finished fourth with an average time of 2:17:37.69, followed by Hardin-Simmons in fifth place at 28:16.66. ETBU’s top five averaged 31:32.03 to finish sixth, followed by Texas-Dallas, LeTourneau and Louisiana College. Ozarks finished 10th with an average time of 34:42.64.

Freshman Sara Grey (Hallsville, TX) was ETBU’s top runner at the conference meet, finishing 35th overall with a time of 29:14.17. Sophomore Kara Beall (Kavieng, Papua, New Guinea) was 46th overall in 30:31.44.

Sophomore Amanda Bell (Shinyanga, Tanzania) finished 52nd overall in 31:08.98, followed by teammate Cameron Christy (Hallsville, TX) at 61st overall in 33:02.16. Junior Casey Lantz was the Lady Tigers’ fifth finisher, coming in at 64th overall in 33:43.39.

"Sara is a freshman runner and is our fastest girl,” Bach-Prather said of her top runner from last weekend. "She has steadily picked up speed throughout the year and has a very promising future. Kara has also steadily improved throughout the season…I’m hoping Sara and Kara can make it into the top 14 by next year.”

Bach-Prather has also been pleased with the progress of the other team members this season.

"Amanda has improved the most this year, I’ve seen great success with her during our speed workouts,” the coach added. "Cameron has done very well, each race she has shown improvement and her times are getting faster. Casey has made me very proud…for two years she has maintained the same times but this year she has taken up to two minutes off her 5K and 6K times.”

The first-year coach is excited about the team’s continued development and prospects for next season.

"All my girls have great attitudes and work hard even on those cold, rainy mornings,” she said. "I’m really proud of all of them.”