Lady Bison Fifth at Regional

KEARNEY, Neb. – Oklahoma Baptist, disappointed in a fifth-place finish at the Central Region Cross Country Meet Saturday, has an agonizing 48 hours ahead of them.
 
At fifth place in the region, Oklahoma Baptist must wait on a NCAA committee decision to determine the eight at-large berths for the National Championship field.
 
"It's very disappointing from the standpoint that we thought we could finish in the top three, if not compete for the first-place trophy," said OBU Coach Matt Kennedy. "We picked a bad time to have an average day."
 
OBU finished with 160 points and just over a minute away from third place and an automatic berth.
 
The University of Mary dominated with 61 points and four top-20 runners, followed by Pittsburg State at 102, Augustana at 110 and Minnesota-Duluth at 150.
 
The Lady Bison placed three runners on the victory stand as Top 25 finishers. Abby Hoover placed 10^th at 21:46.3 to lead OBU in the six-kilometer course.
 
Sydney Lawrence was 12^th at 21:52.2 and Kaylee Crowson finished 18^th at 22:02.0.
 
"Those top three ran very well," Kennedy said.
 
Emily Sechrist placed 35^th at 22:33.5 and Tesa Potter was 85^th to round out the scoring in 23:34.6.
 
Also for OBU, Megan Allen was 149^th at 24:53.3.
 
The NCAA's committee will meet at 10 a.m. Monday and announce the at-large entries by 6 p.m.
 
"The committee's job is to put the best 32 teams in the meet," Kennedy said. "We just have to hope our body of work this season is good enough."