Murray State University Athletics
Murray State
OVC Championship
Best Performance for Women's Cross Country Team Since 1990
11/1/2008 5:00:00 AM | Women's Cross Country
Katelyn Jones finished third in a field of 73 runners with a time of 18:47.7; only ten seconds behind the second place finisher, Juli Koenegstein a senior from Southeast Missouri State Univeristy.
“Overall I am proud of the progress that the women have made over the past year. With this being such a tightly contested competition people really got a taste of what we are capable of as a team and as a program,” said head coach Dereck Chavis. “The women should be proud of themselves because placing second in the conference championship is something that
The women Racer's have not performed this well as a team or individually at the OVC championships since 1990, where MSU finished second as a team and Heather Huhn came in second with a time of 18:44 in the 5k.
Murray also received their first OVC Freshman of the Year award with Karissa Magnuson's eighth place finish in a time of 19:09.4.
Taylor Crawford finished seventh with a time of 19:00.2 and Alaina Zanin rounded out the top 11 with a time of 19:20.6.
Due to their outstanding performances Katelyn Jones and Taylor Crawford made the All-OVC First Team; and Karissa Magnuson and Alaina Zanin made the All-OVC Second Team.
“Today's course was pretty challenging, but our team ran superbly with a second place finish and four women in the top eleven,” said assistant coach Chris England. ”Freshman of the Year honors capped off a great day for the women's cross country team.”
The men finished in eighth place with a total time of 2:23.09 after finishing ninth a year ago. The top runner for the men was Jordan Nikolaisen who came in 34th place out of 76 runners.
“I think the guys made great progress this year and performed very well today,” said Chavis.
Coach Chavis has high expectations for the Racer's next season.
“What we need to take from this season to next season is that we are competitive in our conference now,” Chavis added. “We have a program that can be put in contingency for the title for years to come.”
With many of the top runner's for the women returning next season
