WKU Wraps Up C-USA Championship Competition

Saturday, November 2

Bowling Green, Ky.

9 a.m. CT

Western Kentucky University

C-USA Championships

11/2/2019 10:14:00 PM | Cross Country

Men's Results Women's Results Photo Gallery Photo Gallery

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – WKU Cross Country wrapped up competition in the Conference USA Championships Saturday morning at Kereiakes Park.

It was the school's first time hosting the conference championships since 2015, with the men's team earning a seventh-place finish in the 8k and the women's team closing out the day with a 12^th-place finish in the 5k.

The men's squad saw four of their student-athletes earn top-50 finishes while placing seventh as a team amongst the 11-school field. Emerson Wells recorded the top finish on the squad, placing 28^th with a time of 25:23.21. Jacob Skillman finished the meet in 44^th place with a season-best mark of 26:06.87, while Clint Sherman placed 47^th with a personal-record of 26:16.90 and Dedrick Troxell finished in 50^th place with a time of 26:21.39.

"Coming into this year's conference championships, really the goal was just to be better in terms of team finishes than we were last year," said cross country head coach Tim Sykes. "I said that to both groups, the men's group and the women's group.

"Overall, on the men's side, we knew there were four teams on paper who we had a really good opportunity to mix it up with and beat in the team final standings. We ended up finishing seventh out of 11 teams, so we accomplished that objective of beating those four teams. Last year we were ninth, so additionally, we met the team goal that was set of finishing better than last year."

WKU Men's Results
7^th – Team – 26:11 avg.
28^th – Emerson Wells – 25:23.21
44^th – Jacob Skillman – 26:06.87 (Season-Best)
47^th – Clint Sherman – 26:16.90 (PR)
50^th – Dedrick Troxell – 26:21.39
60^th – Ethan Snyder – 26:42.21 (PR)
65^th – Will Perrone – 27:04.68
67^th – Jacob Steppe – 27:10.05
73^rd – Luke Hoover – 27:55.53
78^th – Donnie Fry – 28:38.19 (PR)

On the women's side, two runners recorded top-75 finishes while the team placed 12^th out of the 13-school pool. Savannah Heckman led the way, finishing 54^th with a mark of 19:02.37, while Morgan Kannapel placed 74^th with a PR of 19:38.15.

"On the women's side, we had the same goal; to be better team-place wise than we were last year," said Sykes. "We ended up finishing in the same place - I think we had a few hiccups along the way with a couple athletes being injured, a couple sicknesses. But really, no excuses, we stayed healthy when it mattered at the end of the season. But, I think there were a couple of weeks during important training periods where we just weren't as healthy and consistent as we could have been.

"But, the women are moving in the right direction. They ran some PR's today. So, in the short reflecting period that I've had; if you can run a PR, even though your team place is still the same from a year before, then you're doing something right if you can run as fast or faster at the end of the season than you did during the whole fall cross country season."

WKU Women's Results
12^th – Team – 19:58 avg.
54^th – Savannah Heckman – 19:02.37
74^th – Morgan Kannapel – 19:38.15 (PR)
81^st – Carley Maskos – 20:01.23 (Season-Best)
87^th – Jenna Vaughn – 20:17.01
94^th – Haley Webb – 20:49.46
99^th – Heather Whitlow – 21:31.93
101^st – Kaia Enevoldsen – 21:51.22 (Season-Best)
104^th – Kacy Weinburg – 22:33.47 (Season-Best)