LCSC Cross Country teams claim conference titles, qualify for nationals

The Lewis-Clark State College men’s and women’s cross country teams emphatically punched their tickets to the NAIA National Meet by winning the Frontier Conference meets for the third consecutive year on Friday at Sugar House Park in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Both squads won the meet in team times more than five minutes faster than their nearest competitor to remain as the only teams to win conference titles in the sport. The FC’s first conference meet was in 2007.
By winning the team titles, both Warriors teams earned automatic berth to the national meet on Nov. 21 in Vancouver, Wash. This is the ninth straight year the Warrior women have qualified as a team, while the fourth straight year for the men, who have sent either a team or an individual runner to nationals for seven straight years.
The Warrior men again were dominant as for only the second time in veteran Warrior coach Mike Collins’ tenure, LCSC swept the top five spots in the meet. The first time it happened was during last year’s conference meet.
The top 10 finishers in the meet earn all-conference honors and the top finisher earns the conference’s Runner of the Year honor. For the third straight year, the LCSC men had the individual winner as Sean Huey, a junior from Boise, took top honors in 27 minutes and 8.3 seconds over the 8-kilometer course.
Like the men, the women’s team time was more than five minutes faster than runner-up Great Falls. The Warrior women had 33 points, followed by Great Falls with 69 and Carroll at 78.
The Warriors’ top finisher on the women’s side was senior Kyli Astle, who was third in 20:12.5 over the 5-kilometer course. The Warriors also had the Nos. 6-11 finishers in the race to help the team finish with six runners in the top 10 who earned all-conference honors.
Unlike the conference meet, where everyone is eligible to run, LCSC can only have seven runners compete at nationals on each squad. Collins said he will have some tough decisions as to who will compose the Warrior squads for the meet.