“We’ve trained hard this week, but we’ve somewhat trained through this meet,” said Patty Vavra, Southern women’s coach. “It’s a great situation for us to be at home for a meet, but it’s not the time of year for us to be having our best performances.”

The Lion women will be running for only the second time after withdrawing from last weekend’s Central Missouri meet due to threatening weather conditions.

Junior Kimi Shank, who owns the school record in the six-kilometer race, will try to add the 5K mark to her collection in today’s race.

“Victoria Kline (junior from Fairland, Okla.) looks better and Olga (sophomore Bulgurova) is much improved over last year.”

The Lion women will face ranked opponents in Harding (No. 12) and MIAA rival Pittsburg State (No. 17).