ACU men, women favored to repeat

Wildcat teams should extend LSC championship streaks

WEATHERFORD, Okla. - The ACU men's and women's cross country teams are the overwhelming favorites to defend their Lone Star Conference team championships this weekend in the annual LSC Cross Country Championship meet.

For the first time, Southwestern Oklahoma State is hosting the event, and more than 120 runners from 18 teams will be running on the Prairie West Golf Course on Saturday.  The men's 8000 meter race will begin at 9:30 a.m. with the women's 6000 meter race to follow at 10:30 a.m.

The ACU men -- ranked No. 1 in the NCAA Division II South Central Region and No. 2 in the nation -- shouldn't be touched as they look to win their 15th straight conference championship.  ACU, in fact, is favored to win the regional championship (Saturday, Nov. 5, in Abilene), and, along with Adams State and Western State, will be
among the favorites to win the national championship (Nov. 19 in Pomona, Calif.).

As always, the ACU men will be led by sophomore sensation and defending NCAA Division II individual cross country champion, Nicodemus Naimadu.  The sophomore from Narok, Kenya, has four top-five finishes this fall in four events for the Wildcats, including a runner-up finish last weekend to Arkansas' Josphat Boit at the Arkansas Chile Pepper Festival.

Naimadu backed off Boit in the final 100 meters of the race, basically conceding the race to Boit and allowing him to win the individual title on his home course.

Naimadu, however, is not the lone standout on this Wildcat team.

As first-year ACU head coach Derek Hood promised before the season began, this Wildcat team is as deep as any the program has ever fielded.

Naimadu will be challenged for the overall title Saturday by senior Lucky Hadebe, as well as juniors Philip Birgen and Serge Gasore.  And don't forget about defending conference champion Martin O'Kello.

EastCentral -- ranked No. 15 in the nation and led by sophomore Josh Stewart -- is favored to finish a distant second to the Wildcats.

On the women's side, the Wildcats -- ranked No. 1 in the region and No. 16 in the nation -- will be trying to win their fifth straight LSC title.

ACU will be led by junior Olha Kryv'yak, who has three top-10 finishes to her credit in four meets this season.  Kryv'yak was eighth last week at the Arkansas Chile Pepper Festival, one week after finishing ninth at the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree.

Seniors Trina Cox and Adeh Mwamba will have to run near the front of the pack -- if not in the lead pack with Kryv'yak for the Wildcats to win the league title.  Mwamba is the defending conference champion, winning the title in 2004 with a time of 21:51.85, and then going on to earn both all-region and all-America honors.

The Wildcats will have to get help from the bottom of the lineup, which could be in the form of seniors Mollye Stanford or Abbie Waters, or freshman Venessa Whittle or Mary Wambui.

Southwestern Oklahoma State sophomore Rachel Ingram -- who won the individual title in the College Division at the Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree -- is a top-five threat in the individual race.  She finished third in the individual standings at the ACU Classic in September, well behind both Cox (individual champion) and Kryv'yak in a head-to-head battle.