Lions, Lady Lions Claim Individual Titles at Mississippi College

CLINTON, Miss. - Sophomores Henry Rop and Kalphys Kemboi finished one-two on the men's side, sophomore Dorcus Kapkiai ran away with the individual women's title and sophomore Nelphat Boit put together a fifth-place run as the Southeastern Louisiana University men's and women's cross country teams totaled four top-five finishes en route to a fourth place finishes for each squad.

"Our top performers ran very well," head coach Sean Brady said.  "Henry and Kalphys were one-two all the way and Nelphat ran very well.  On the women's side, it was good for Dorcus to win the way she did.  Hopefully, this can be a big confidence booster for her as she heads into the conference meet."

The Lions placed three finishers in the top five as Rop claimed his second title of the 2008 season with a time of 24:36.4 over the 8K men's course.  Kemboi was right on his heels in second place with a time of 24:46.52.  Boit claimed his first top-five finish of the season with a time of 26:06.50.

On the women's side, Kapkiai clocked in at 22:45.06 to claim first.  The Lady Lions also saw a pair of top-15 performances from freshman Katherine Cade, who recorded her third top-15 time of the fall with a 12th-place time of 24:37.80, and senior Kim Gastinell, who took 14th with a 25:00.31 mark. 

"It was nice to see Katherine continue to develop," Brady said.  "She's been very consistent and turned in some nice performances for a freshman, and Kim ran well today."

However, despite placing six finishers in the top-15 and three men in the top five, Southeastern could only muster a pair of fourth-place finishes for the men's and women's squads. 

"We didn't do as well as we had hoped," Brady said. "Our top performers did very well, but we'll need our four through seven runners to step up if we want to do well at conference.  They ran very well at Auburn last week, so we know what they're capable of.  We just need more consistency from those spots."

The Lions and Lady Lions will have a week of as they prepare for the Southland Conference Cross Country Championships on Nov. 3 in Nacogdoches, Texas hosted by Stephen F. Austin.