WKU Closes Out Competition at Live in Lou Classic

Saturday, October 3

Louisville, KY

9:30 AM CT

Western Kentucky University

Live In Lou Classic

Photo by: Jay Crain, Appalachian State Athletics

10/3/2020 1:30:00 PM | Cross Country

Coach LeCompte Interview Women's Results Men's Results

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Both the men's and women's WKU Cross Country squads placed sixth in their second meet of the season Saturday, Oct. 3 at the Live in Lou Classic.

The women finished sixth out of 16 teams in their 5K and were led by Rory O'Connor, who placed 16^th out of 157 runners after finishing with a time of 18:39.4. The men placed sixth out of 13 schools in their 8K while being paced by Emerson Wells, who finished 11^th out of 119 competitors with a mark of 25:17.4.

"I thought today's race went pretty well overall," said cross country head coach Brooks LeCompte. "The women, probably not quite our best showing that I would've liked to have seen, just based on what we had done in the past in our first meet. But they did run very aggressively, which is what I'd instructed them to do. So, they did follow the instructions, and today they just didn't have it to finish all the way.

"But, racing that way - racing aggressively and pushing – is what we want to do here. That's the culture we're trying to build. I think the more we do it and the more we just try to be confident in ourselves it's going to pay off in the long run."

The women recorded two top-25 finishes in the meet, with O'Connor's 16^th-place finish and fellow freshman Lucy Rutherford placing 25^th after recording a personal record mark of 18:59.3 in the race.

WKU Women's Results
6^th – Team
16^th – Rory O'Connor – 18:39.4
25^th – Lucy Rutherford – 18:59.3 (PR)
41^st – Haley Webb – 19:18.0
45^th – Zoe Manning – 19:21.4
46^th – Savannah Heckman – 19:26.1
76^th – Jenna Vaughn – 20:00.9
123^rd – Kaia Enevoldsen – 21:42.8

The men saw three runners record top-25 finishes, as Wells placed 11^th, Dedrick Troxell finished 19^th and Clint Sherman placed 22^nd. Both Troxell and Sherman recorded personal records in the meet, with Troxell finishing with a time of 25:30.2 and Sherman recording a mark of 25:33.8.

"The men looked a lot better than they did at Appalachian State," said LeCompte. "Getting some key guys back definitely helped push the team forward. We were looking to see how our backend of the group was going to do from five to seven, and I think they did decently well. I definitely think there's some things we can improve on, but overall, I think it was a better race for the men."

WKU Men's Results
6^th – Team
11^th – Emerson Wells – 25:17.4
19^th – Dedrick Troxell – 25:30.2 (PR)
22^nd – Clint Sherman – 25:33.8 (PR)
46^th – Jacob Skillman – 26:32.3
64^th – Anthony Sweet – 27:20.7
75^th – Miles Huff – 27:47.4 (PR)
85^th – Steven Votaw – 27:59.6

"I'm definitely proud of the group," said LeCompte. "I know that we're going to get back to work and start working on getting ready for UAB in two weeks."

WKU will wrap up regular season competition at the UAB-hosted Blazer Classic on Friday, Oct. 16 in Hoover, Ala.