Both the past two years, the Bearkat distance runners have started Sam Houston State’s drive to Southland Conference Commissioner’s Cups with an outstanding performance at the league cross country meet.
Sam Houston State’s men’s team finished as league runners-up in cross country in both 2004 and 2005 while the women produced fourth place finishes.
“The track and field and cross country programs take a lot of pride in how we’ve contributed to Sam Houston State winning back-to-back Commissioner’s Cups,” SHSU track and field head coach Curtis Collier said. “We hope to get our bid for a third consecutive cup off to a good start in 2006.”
The opportunity comes Friday morning in Nacogdoches when Stephen F. Austin State hosts the 43rd annual Southland Conference cross country championship meet.
The SFA men have won five straight league cross country titles with Sam Houston State finishing second behind the Jacks each of the past four years.
This fall, however, both SFA and SHSU face a new challenger in the Lamar Cardinals.
“Lamar has added three outstanding runners from Kenya and, at the Arkansas Chili Pepper meet two weeks ago, those three runners showed they can be dominating,” Collier said. “The key will be if our depth as a team can overcome the three top runners they have.”
Lamar is two-time defending champion in women’s cross country.
“Our women have the potential to finish any where from third to sixth,” Collier said. “Again, we need strong performances from all five runners.”
Freshman Morten Munkholm and senior Brandon Moseley have been the top performers for the men’s cross country squad. Munkholm was the runner-up at the Corpus Christi Islander Splash meet and placed fourth at Texas A&M.
Moseley has two top 10 individual finishes to his credit this season.
Allison Ferries has been the top performer for the women with a seventh place at Corpus Christi and a 20th place at Texas A&M.