Troy runs well at Sun Belt Conference Championships

Saturday, October 27

Bowling Green, KY.

10 a.m.

Troy University

Hosted by Western Kentucky University

Troy runs well at Sun Belt Conference Championships

10/27/2007 5:00:00 AM | Track & Field

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. ? The Troy University Trojans improved on their conference finishes from a season ago, with the men finishing sixth and the women 10th in the 2007 Sun Belt Cross Country Championships.

The Trojans finished with 159 total points, just five points short of fifth place Florida International (154 points).

Individually, Jeremy Moujoodi finished in 13th place as he crossed the line in 26:18.09. Although he finished 13th overall, he was the second American to cross the line for any conference team. Terrence Dixon was the second Trojan across the line, coming in at a time of 27:30.42 and in 32nd position. He was followed closely by teammate Tim Landry in 34th place with a time of 27:31.16.

Other Trojans who competed and crossed the line were Brett Lewis (38th place) with a time of 27:42.71, Paul Boothe (43rd place) with a time of 28:02.71 and Adam Bradley (50th place) with a time of 28:28.73.

"We did a great job of pack running today," Troy assistant coach Tommy Barksdale said. "We made big strides in both the men's and women's races, and improved upon last season. Both teams just did a great job of running this weekend.

Overall in the conference, South Alabama's Micah Tirop gave the Jaguar's their third consecutive men's individual title finishing the course in 24:40.07. The Uganda native outpaced second place finisher, Ondrej Puskar from UALR, by a little over 25 seconds. Puskar finished with a time of 25:07.84.

Rounding out the top three finishers was South Alabama's Antipah Sugut. Sugut's crossed the finish line with a time of 25:24.21.

Joining Tirop, Pukar and Sugut on the all-conference team are North Texas' Patrick Strong, WKU's Bethuel Kiplagat, UALR's Rex Hamel, WKU's Cosmas Bor, Middle Tennessee's William Songock, North Texas' Frank Ngeno and Middle Tennesse's Isaac Biwott.

UALR scored 53 points on their way to the men's title placing six runners in the top 20. North Texas finished second with 75 points, one point ahead of third place finisher Middle Tennessee. WKU came in fourth with 81 points followed by Florida International with 154 points and Troy with 159 points. Seventh place went to Arkansas State with 193 points, eighth place was South Alabama with 196 points and ninth place was Florida Atlantic with 224 points. Louisiana-Lafayette and Louisiana-Monroe rounded out the eleven field team finishing tenth and 11th respectively.

Meanwhile, for the Troy University women's team, the Trojans finished 10th with 230 total points and an average time of 20:57.16. The Trojans were just 13 points from ninth and 19 points from eight place in the final standings.

Junior Jeaean Corcoran crossed the line first for Troy with a time of 19:35.71 and in 26th place. She was followed by junior Jennifer Graham in 33rd place with a time of 19:55.44. After the duo crossed the line, freshman Kelly Harrington crossed with a time of 20:15.27 in 42nd position, rounding out the runners for the Trojans in the top 50.

Overall In the women's race, WKU's Janet Jesang finished first place with a time of 17:28.29. The sophomore battled UALR junior Whitney Kerth the entire race beating her by just nine seconds. Kerth finished the course with a time of 17:37.83.

Coming in behind Kerth was Middle Tennessee sophomore ZamZam Sangau. Sangau's time of 18:01.50 put her just ahead of UALR's Katarina Lovrantova who finished in fourth place with a time of 18:06.55.

As well as the top four finishers, Florida International's Paola Reategui, Middle Tennessee's Marjorie Gombert, WKU's Eimear O'Brien, Florida Atlantic's Friederike Feil, WKU's Natalie Leeper and Florida International's Deidra Witherspoon were named all-conference.

WKU's scored 52 points on the way to their second consecutive championship. The Hilltoppers beat out second place UALR by 11 points, who scored 63 points. Middle Tennessee finished third with 69 points, Florida International scored 80 points on the way to their fourth place finish and fifth place finisher Florida Atlantic ended the day with 138 points. Following Florida Atlantic in sixth place was North Texas with 178 points, Arkansas State finished seventh with 207 points, Louisiana-Lafayette came in eighth with 211 points and Louisiana-Monroe ended in ninth place with 217. Rounding out the teams was Troy in tenth with 230 points and South Alabama in 11th with 274 points.

Two Sun Belt freshmen were honored as the league's Freshmen of the Year, as North Texas' Patrick Strong and Middle Tennessee's Marla Bailey took home the honors.

UALR's Milton Williams and WKU's Curtiss Long were respectively named the SBC's men's and women's coaches of the year.