OBU Sweeps Regionals

November 5, 2004

Oklahoma Baptist University's cross country teams will both move on to the NAIA National Meet after sweeping the NAIA Region VI Championships in Shawnee Saturday morning.

The OBU women coasted to a 45-point win while the Bison held off Wayland Baptist in the men's race 50-62.

On the women's side, defending NAIA, Region and Conference champion Mirriam Kaumba broke her own course record with a 16:48.12, beating by .88 seconds her Bison Invitational time, the former course record. More than two minutes later, Anetra Mattews of Texas A&M International crossed for second place.

OBU's Kelsey (19:14) and Katie Engstrom (19:18) and Becka Brock (19:20) finished fifth, sixth and seventh, respectively and Katy Rader was 12th in 20:09.83 to finish OBU's scoring. Also for OBU, Kyta Ferrer was 23rd at 20:43.90 and Sarah Hale was 26th at 20:59.12.

OBU finished with 21 points, followed by Southern Nazarene at 76, Oklahoma Christian at 85, Northwood at 98, Wayland Baptist at 114, TAMUI at 133 and Texas-Permian Basin at 159. Northwestern Oklahoma State, College of the Southwest and St. Gregory's all had runners but no team score.

Kaumba also claimed the Sooner Athletic Conference championship and all four of her scoring teammates joined her on the 10-member All-Conference team, which includes Kaumba, Wayland Baptist's Jennifer Baker, the Engstrom twins, Brock, Oklahoma Christian's Kate Owen and Audra Bowling, SNU's Amy McMullen, Rader and SNU's Amy Merhib.

OBU Coach Ford Mastin was named Coach of the Year for the SAC and Region Women. Former Bison Brian Whitlock, now coach at Wayland Baptist, won the same honors on the men's side.

For the men, Oklahoma Christian's Kenneth Bowling won the SAC and Region titles in 25:29.07 on the eight-kilometer course, followed by Nimrod Lelei of WBU at 25:59.20.

But OBU's five scorers were in the top 19, led by Daniel Ellis (26:05) and Theron Stoltzfus (26:29) in third and sixth, respectively. Landon Willets was ninth at 26:44, followed by Cole Tunnell in 13th at 27:29 and Dave Matuschak in 19th at 28:05.

OBU won the meet with 52 points, followed by Wayland Baptist at 62, Northwood at 82, Oklahoma Christian at 104, St. Gregory's at 133, TAMUI at 148, UTPB at 150 and Southern Nazarene at 163.

Also for OBU, Jacob Wright was 23rd in 28:25 and Nathan Battershell was 27th at 28:41.

The All-Conference team included Bowling, Lelei, Ellis, Stoltzfus, Alex Dech of SNU, Jerry Faulkner of St. Gregory's, Willets, OC's Allen Thompson, WBU's Vincent Tanui, and Battershell.

The national meet is Nov. 20 in Louisville, Ky.