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November 7, 2009

Southern runners sweep regional titles

Women’s team sets scoring record; Lions earn tickets to national meet

From staff reports

sports@joplinglobe.com

ABILENE, Texas — Missouri Southern continued its cross country dominance Saturday, sweeping the team titles in the South Central Regional at Abilene Christian University.

The victories qualify the Lions for the Division II national championships on Nov. 21 at Evansville, Ind.

Southern’s women again won in record-setting fashion, with a regional-record low total of 18 points. Lion runners finished 1-2-3-5-7-10 in the women’s race.

Senior Kimi Shank was the individual winner, covering six kilometers in 20 minutes, 59.05 seconds. Teammates Ashley Siler and Ashley Bunch were second and third, respectively.

The Southern men packed five runners among the top 15 finishers and held off MIAA rivals Southwest Baptist and Pittsburg State. The Lions scored 56 points to Southwest Baptist’s 81 and Pittsburg State’s 86, with all three schools qualifying for nationals.

“We ran a tight pack time,” said Tom Rutledge, Southern men’s coach. “When you don’t have a No. 1 runner, that’s the only way we can win and it’s been doing pretty good for us.”

Junior Josh Mathis led the Lions with a seventh-place finish, touring the 10-kilometer course in 31 minutes, 40.40 seconds.

“We had a 31-second pack time (between the teams top five runners),” Rutledge said.

“We had to fight people off. They kept challenging through the race and in the 10K, there’s a lot of opportunities. We just kept a good rhythm, a good pace. They’d make another run at us and we’d hold them off. We’ve been aggressive the last couple of races, running together and staying together.

“It’s hard to pass when you have a pack of gold in front of you.”

Senor Dustin Dixon was the Lions’s second runner, finishing ninth. Aki Nummela was 11th, Jarkko Jarvenpaa 14th and Brennan Benkert 15th.

“We’ve had a different leader every week,” Rutledge said.

The Southern women scored 18 points for the second race in a row, after setting an MIAA record with that total at the conference meet.

“I think they run better knowing they’re running for the team than if they’re running for any individual prize,” said Patty Vavra, Southern women’s coach.

“They’ve run with a mission all season. Their goals have been to get to this meet, to win it and to go on to the national championship. ... They won it in a very dominant fashion. The honors continue to pile up, but the biggest one is two weeks from now.”

Senior Courtney Waltbillig was fifth for the Lions, with freshman Marlee Tegenkamp seventh and junior Silvia Pineda tenth. The top six Southern runners earned all-region honors.

Shank won the regional title after runner-up finishes the previous two seasons.

“Kimi looked very strong today,” Vavra said. “They all did. And the thing that looks promising for the national championships is that they’re still looking strong at the end of the race.”

No. 2 finisher Dallas Baptist earned the other regional position in the women’s national meet with 86 points. Pittsburg State finished fourth, trailing Truman State 97-107.

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