Cross Country/Track
Women's Cross Country Fifth at South Central Regional Championship
By
Nov 4, 2006, 22:01

The SBU women’s cross country team came up just short in their attempt to qualify for the 2006 national championships this weekend during competition at the NCAA South Central Regional Championship.

In a meet where four nationally-ranked teams were forced to compete for only two qualifying slots, the #16 Lady Bearcats ended up in fifth place out of the 19 team field.  #9 nationally ranked Abilene Christian won the team title with 71 points, followed by #23 Pittsburg State University (2^nd , 99 points) and host University of Central Missouri (3^rd, 125 points). #15 Missouri Southern edged SBU by one point for fourth place, outscoring the Lady Bearcats 130-131.

For the third time in her career, Amy Broadhurst claimed All-South Central Regional honors.  The senior finished in an all-time program best seventh place to miss advancing to the national championships by two places with her time of 22:26.  Truman State senior Jacquie Faust won the individual title in a time 22:00.

Junior Alyssa Maggart was next across the line for SBU in 27^th place.  She was followed by five freshmen who helped SBU to tie the all-time regional best performance in school history.  Kristen Colon and Chelsea Strahm finished 36^th and 37^th, respectively, while freshman All-MIAA honoree Courtney Ayers rounded out the five scorers for SBU with a 43^rd place.  Fellow frosh teammates Andrea Owensby (45^th) and Erica Whitfield (47^th) were less than six seconds behind Ayers.

As with the men, the women enjoyed a banner year highlighted by eight straight weeks of top-25 ranking in the USTFCCCA national poll, a runner-up finish at the 2006 MIAA Championships, and ranking as high as 16^th in the country at one time.  Other all-time program bests on the year included Amy Broadhurst’s third place individual MIAA finish and her school record 5k performance of 18:06 at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.