WEATHERFORD, Okla. – It was a four-peat for the Oklahoma Baptist women's cross country team as the Bison claimed yet another Great American Conference title Saturday morning.
The Bison were led by individual gold medalist
Emma Downing, who claimed first place with a time of 18:14.7. Three OBU runners finished in the top four overall as
Kayla McGruder (18:26.6) and
Allison Derry (18:34.2) finished just behind East Central's Aaliyah Regg-Wajid (18:22.5).
Jana Le Roux was 19
th with a time of 19:46.7, while
Berkley Price was 20
th, finishing at 19:48.1.
OBU finished with a team total of 47, 14 ahead of second-place Arkansas Tech.
Finishing just outside the scoring column for the Bison were
Sarah O'Bryan (24
th) and
Olivia Lynch (39
th).
Of note, the Bison became just the fifth GAC program to win at least four straight conference titles. Ouachita men's tennis and Southern Arkansas baseball each won four consecutive championships from 2012 through 2015. In golf, Henderson State's men won four straight from 2014 to 2018, while Arkansas Tech's women have won the last five, dating back to 2015.
In the men's race, the Bison earned a second-place finish behind a top-six performances from
Christian Arenivar (25:45.7) and
Noah Eskew (25:49.2). All seven Bison runners finished in the top 15 in the individual standing.
As a team, OBU finished with 47 points, 10 behind ECU.
The Bison claimed five straight spots in the individual standings with
Jarrett Ellis (26:29.5),
Steven Clark (26:39.0),
Maxamillian Wheeler (26:53.0),
Blake Cope (26:55.8), and
Parker Ables (26:57.6) finishing 11
th-15
th overall.
Following the meet, Downing was named women's GAC Runner of the Year, while head coach
Frezer Legesse earned women's Coach of the Year honors, and Arenivar was named the men's GAC Freshman of the Year.
