ABILENE, Texas – Running in some of their toughest conditions of the season, the Southeastern Louisiana men's and women's cross country teams finished ninth and 10^th, respectively, at the Southland Conference Championships Friday morning at the Abilene Christian University course.

    The Southeastern men had their best finish since 2012 in finishing with 247 points. Lamar won its fifth straight title, defeating McNeese in a tie-breaker after both teams finished with 42 points.

    The Lady Lions finished 10^th for the third straight season with 297 points. Host Abilene Christian, which had the top three individual finishers, won with 44 points. Lamar was second with 73 points with McNeese third with 80.

    Southeastern's top three runners finished within 1.3 seconds of each other. Freshman Anthony Cordero took 43^rd in 26 minutes, 5.7 seconds. Sophomore Grant O'Callaghan was 44^th, 11 spots higher than his finish in 2016, in 26:06.9. Freshman Adam Cortez was right behind in 45^th in 26:07.0. Sophomore Bryant White ran a career-best 26:37.7 for 54^th, 32 spots better than he did a year ago at the meet. Junior Brett Olivier was 65^th in 27:06.8 while freshman Reed Callegan came in 70^th in 27:44.5.

    Freshman Tara Stuntz placed 43^rd in 23:12.4 with fellow freshman Sophie Daigle 47^th in 23:17.1. Freshman Breanna Bernard came in 50^th in a career-best 23:22.5. Freshmen Lydia Pevey (84^th, 27:14.7) and Lindsey Hutcheson (85^th, 27:19.7) also scored for the Lady Lions.
 
MEET NOTES
   Lamar's Jamie Crowe took the men's title in 24:29.1. McNeese's Nathan Jones was second in 24:33.8.
  
   Abilene Christian's Alexandria Hackett nipped teammate Michaela Hackett, 20:27.8-20:31.1 for the women's title.
 
   The Lions averaged 26:24.82 for the 8K while the Lady Lions averaged 24:53.28 in the 6K.
 
QUOTES
Southeastern head coach Rocky Capello:
   "Not what we were hoping. Conditions were tough and some of the kids were still struggling from their illnesses. It was in the low 40s with 26 mile-per-hour winds and they just struggled on that course. The guys improved one spot from last year and the girls stayed the same. We have to get back together and hopefully we do a lot better at regionals. We have a lot of young kids and it was their first conference meet. I think some of their nerves kicked in and a few of them tried to do things they are not used to doing and it caught up with them in the second half of the race. We had a good season and I wish we had ended on a happier note but we still have one race left and hopefully in that one we fare a lot better."
 
UP NEXT
   The NCAA South Central Regional qualifying race will take place on Friday, Nov. 10 in College Station, Texas, hosted by Texas A&M. The 2017 NCAA Cross Country Championships will take place at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky., on Saturday, Nov. 18.
 
Southland Conference Championships
at Abilene, Texas
Friday
Team Scores
Men
1. Lamar          42
2. McNeese     42
3. Incarnate Word        99
4. Central Arkansas      122
5. Stephen F. Austin     137
6. Sam Houston State   141
7. Abilene Christian      172
8. Texas A&M-CC      245
9. Southeastern La.    247
10. Houston Baptist      252
11. Northwestern State 270
12. New Orleans          340
13. Nicholls      412
 
Women
1. Abilene Christian      44
2. Lamar          73
3. McNeese     80
4. Texas A&M-CC      91
5. Stephen F. Austin     103
6. Incarnate Word        112
7. Central Arkansas      161
8. Sam Houston State   244
9. Houston Baptist        294
10. Southeastern La.  297
11. Northwestern State 310
12. Nicholls      357
13. New Orleans          405