LAWTON, Okla. (Oct. 22, 2021) –
Kenya Bailey and Oklahoma Christian's women's cross country team opened the 2021 season with individual and team wins in the Aggie Duels on the course on which the Lone Star Conference Championship race will be run on Saturday.
That past success hopefully will bode well as a veteran OC squad led by Bailey – a two-time race winner this season – seeks to improve on its eighth-place finish from last season's meet, which was held in San Angelo, Texas. This year's 6,000-meter conference race will start at 9:30 a.m. at the Big Green Soccer Complex.
The Eagles' seven-woman lineup for the race will include five juniors and a senior who have plenty of experience competing in big races, OC coach
Wade Miller said.
"We are going to be relying on quite a bit of upperclass experience this weekend," Miller said. "We had a strong race earlier this season in Lawton on this course and we have progressed well since then. It will be important for us to stay locked in during the middle of the race and collectively put together performances that reflect all the work and commitment that this group has had."
The top 15 individual finishers will earn All-LSC honors. Bailey, a junior from Ponca City who's seeking what would be the fourth All-Conference honor of her career (including one as a freshman in the Heartland Conference) is one of eight returning All-LSC runners. Four of those come from returning team champion Dallas Baptist (Texas), long a NCAA Division II power.
Bailey won individual titles in both the Aggie Duels and the Chile Pepper Festival's Prairie Fire race in Fayetteville, Ark., and was the runner-up two weeks ago in Fort Hays State's Tiger Open in Victoria, Kan., in a career-best time of 17:47.1 over 5,000 meters.
She is one of two LSC runners to have won twice this season, along with the returning conference individual champion, West Texas A&M's Florance Uwajaneza, who is trying to become the league's first repeat women's champion since 2007.
Juniors
Caroline Schwab of Andover, Kan.;
Emma Davison of Mason City, Iowa; and
Payton Duesing of Lantana, Texas, have formed the core group for OC behind Bailey in most of the Eagles' meets. Each member of that trio have posted career-best 5K and 6K times this semester.
Junior
Janaya McIntosh of Ganado, Ariz., and senior
Rebeca Morales of Riverside, Calif., are new to the OC lineup this season but also bring considerable experience from their previous collegiate stops. Morales also has recorded career-best 5K and 6K times this semester.
Rounding out the OC lineup on Saturday will be freshman
Jayme Cole of Muskogee.
"This team has really worked on creating a great atmosphere and we are excited to start the championship portion of our season on Saturday," Miller said.
Dallas Baptist and West Texas A&M figure to be the team favorites. In addition to those two squads, four other teams – OC, Eastern New Mexico, Texas A&M International and Arkansas-Fort Smith – own at least one team win this season.
The championship race will be streamed on the LSC Digital Network both online (
www.lonestarconferencenetwork.com) and via Over-The-Top apps on Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Roku devices free of charge. Live results of the race will be available at
http://www.liverunningresults.com.
