LAWTON, Okla. (Oct. 22, 2021) – Oklahoma Christian was one of the surprise men's cross country teams in the 2020 Lone Star Conference Championship race, with the Eagles posting a strong second-place finish in the meet held in San Angelo, Texas.
It's been a bit of a bumpy ride for the Eagles this season, but coach
Wade Miller said his team is "looking forward" to competing in this year's league meet, being held at a site much closer to home – the Big Green Soccer Complex in Lawton, about a 90-minute drive from the OC campus. The 8,000-meter race will begin at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.24:22
The Eagles have a pair of returning All-LSC runners in sophomore
Colten Brown and senior
Colton Meyers, who finished 1-2 on the same course while leading the Eagles to the team win in OC's season-opening meet, the Aggie Duels.
"Conference always has a really competitive atmosphere and we have been working toward this part of the season since the summer, so the start of championship-meet portion of our season always brings a bit more meaning to each opportunity to compete," Miller said.
Brown, from Boise City, is seeking a second straight All-LSC honor, a designation awarded to the top 15 individual finishers. He led last year's LSC race for a time before finishing fifth, and his time in the Aggie Duels (24:22.0) was the fastest of his career over 8,000 meters.
Meyers, from Allen, Texas, also posted his career-best 8K time (24:35) in the same race. He is seeking what would be a fourth All-Conference honor, having earned one in 2018 in the Heartland Conference, then finishing 13th and seventh in the LSC race the past two seasons.
Jelte van Atten, a junior from Leiden, Netherlands, just missed making the All-LSC list last year, finishing 18th, and he's coming off a race – the Tiger Open in Victoria, Kan., two weeks ago – in which he posted his career-best 8K time (26:16.8). Freshman
Griffin Chesire of Eldoret, Kenya, has emerged as one of the Eagles' top five runners this season and ran the Big Green course in 25:56.0 in the Aggie Duels.
Three other Eagles – sophomores
Ethan Anthony of Mornington, Australia;
Kolten Johnson of Lewisburg, Tenn.; and
Austin McNair of Denton, Texas – also have experience running in the LSC meet. Making their conference-meet debuts will be freshmen
Cade Berkey of Hydro and
Christian Fair of Stillwater.
"We have been working on closing up gaps in our scoring five and our team performance will hinge on our ability to position well and stay connected throughout the race," Miller said.
Nine teams in the field on Saturday have won at least one meet title this season, including the prohibitive favorite, West Texas A&M, which is seeking a ninth straight LSC title. Others include Dallas Baptist (Texas), St. Edward's (Texas), Texas A&M International, Arkansas-Fort Smith, Texas-Permian Basin and Western New Mexico.
In addition to Meyers and Brown, nine other returning All-LSC runners are scheduled to compete, including Texas A&M-Commerce's Nicodemus Rotich, who is seeking a second straight individual title.
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.
