The ULM Cross Country men’s and women’s teams performed Saturday Nov. 2, in the Sun Belt Championships at Trojan Oaks on the campus of Troy University.
The men’s team took sixth place in the 8K, while the women’s team finished in ninth place in the 5K.
Dusan Makevic led the Warhawks in the 8K, finishing 13th and received All-Conference Third-Team honors. Makevic finished with a race time of 26:16.7, followed by Vinnie Van Puyvelde with a time of 27:07.8, giving him a top-30 finish.
Personal records were set on the 8k course by freshmen Brent Turner and Lane Perilloux. Turner ran it in 27:25.1 and Perilloux did it in 30:32.9.
“Our team came well prepared; we expected to be in the top three positions at the podium,” said Silah Chumba.
“There was a little bit of improvement from the freshmen, and unexpected results came from the seniors, we expected to do much better,” said Chumba. He finished third for the Warhawks in the 8K.
“If we go to regionals, I think we can do much better than here at Conference.”
Pauline Muiruri led the Warhawks womens team in the 5K with a time of 19:32.1. She also finished with the team’s top time in each race this season.
Sophomore Rebecca Dark finished the race with a time of 20:49.9, finishing second for ULM.
“I think as a whole, considering the condition of our girls, we ran really good, “said Dark.
“Out of the six girls running we had two who were injured and one that was sick. I think we raced as hard as we could. This course was extremely hilly, it was one of the toughest courses we have ever ran. I believe coach Varga did a good job of preparing us for it.
“The girls did better than what we expected, the guys unfortunately had an off day. We had a really good season; unfortunately we had an off day for conference,” said head coach Karoly Varga.
The Warhawks will now wait to hear if they have scored a spot at the NCAA South Central Regionals, taking place on Nov. 15th in Waco, Texas.
“From here I think we are only going to get better and our times are only going to get faster,” Dark said.
Both teams will have a little time for training in preparation for the spring season. Both to make strides between now and then.
