The Southeastern Louisiana University men's team of Kalphys Kemboi and Henry Rop won the season opening McNeese State Invitational Friday night in Lake Charles, while the Lady Lions were led by second place finishers Dorcus Kapkiai and Kim Gastinell. 

Originally scheduled to feature four-person relay teams, the event was shortened due to weather concerns. Instead, two-person relay teams were formed, with each student-athlete running 3000 meters, making for 6000 meter totals. In addition to Southeastern and host McNeese, the meet included Northwestern State, Nicholls, Lamar and Louisiana-Lafayette. 

Kemboi and Rop finished with a time of 17 minutes and 10 seconds. The next best Southeastern Louisiana grouping was Scott Richardson and Nelphat Boit, who ended up in eighth place at 18:43. Other notable relay teams included 13th place finishers Kyle Golden and M.J. Ahmad (19:09) and 15th place finishers Jesse McDavitt and Jaron Ortego (19:36).

“Our go-to people, our 'A' list performers, did what we expected them to do,” head coach Sean Brady said. “Kalphus and Henry ran like they're supposed to run. We expect that kind of performance from those guys.” 

McNeese State's Amy Guinn and Alvy Carragher won the women's event with a time of 21 minutes and 24 seconds, edging Southeastern's top pair of Kapkiai and Gastinell (21:25). Bethany Burst and Naomi Jeruto also racked up a top ten finish, placing eighth (23:17). The duo of Ernestine Carodine and Courtney Schulthesis ended the meet in 12th place (24:05). 

“It was a good start,” Brady said. “Gastinell ran well. She performed like we anticipated. Dorcus was her usual solid, consistent self. You can tell she trained hard over the summer and put herself in position to be one of the top performers in Southland Conference.”