Cross Country Teams Place High At South Central Regionals
11/11/2000 12:00:00 AM | Cross Country
Nov. 11, 2000
DENTON, Texas - Baylor's men's cross country team put itself into position for a possible at-large berth in the NCAA Championships here Saturday with a third-place finish at the NCAA South Central Regional hosted by North Texas at the Eagle Point Golf Course. Meanwhile, Baylor's women's team finished fourth and had two runners in the top 15.
The top two teams in each region receive automatic bids into the NCAA Championships, which will be run Nov. 20 in Ames, Iowa. However13 at-large teams from nine different regions will also be selected to compete in the 31-team championship field.
The Bears totaled 141 points on the men's side with two runners in the top 20. Sophomore Ferenc Bekesi was the top finisher, placing 11th with a time of 31 minutes, 31.68 seconds in the 10,000-meter race. Josh Ward posted a time of 31:54.48 to finish 18th.
Arkansas, the perennial favorite, finished first with a team score of 45. Razorback athletes finished second, fourth, eighth, 13th and 18th. Texas took second with 91 points, followed by Baylor, Texas A&M (159), Tulane (167), Louisiana State (191), Texas Christian (194) and North Texas (202). McNeese State (203) and Stephen F. Austin State (225) rounded out the top 10 in the 17-team field.
Matt Chance placed 27th for the Bears with a time of 32:23.27 and Alex Adler finished 43rd at 32:50.10. Nick Devenport rounded out the scoring runners for Baylor with a 33:21.86 time to tie TCU's Justin Speer for 61st. Aaron Ward (66th, 33:32.61) and Jon Capron (88th, 34:16.18) also ran for Baylor.
On the women's side, the Bears posted a team total of 122 points. Texas A&M took first with 52 points, followed by Arkansas at 68 and TCU at 89. Texas (129) finished fifth and Sam Houston State (183) finished sixth. Arkansas-Little Rock (192), Rice (193), Houston (230) and Texas-Arlington (231) rounded out the top 10 in the 14-team field.
Junior Kara Newton led the Bears once again with a sixth-place time of 20:51.45 in the 6,000-meter race, while Stephanie Bennett took 13th with a time of 21:25.57. Kim Cook turned in a time of 21:55.86 to finish 27th, and Leah Marbach placed 46th with a time of 22:28.21.
Erin Dixon placed 65th with a time of 23:12.53 to round out the scoring runners for Baylor. Megan McCoin (91st, 24:26.51) and Hannah Lodwick (110th, 25:57.46) also ran for the Bears.
Last season, Baylor's men's team finished 12th at the South Central Regional, and the women's team finished third.
