LAWTON, Okla. – The Texas A&M University-Commerce cross country teams competed in the Lone Star Conference Championships at the Lawton Soccer Club on Saturday morning. The Lion men took sixth in the race and the women took 14^th.
 
MEN
The Lions were paced by reigning Lone Star Conference champion, Nicodemus Rotich (Eldoret, Kenya), who took 13^th in the eight-kilometer race with a time of 26:20.86. Tanner Townsend (Royse City) secured 23^rd place, clocking in a time of 26:43.72. Alex Speer (Robinson) placed 31^st in his LSC championship with a time of 27:04.67.
 
Casey Novelo (Burleson – Trinity), Jan Lenfert (Buckenhof, Germany), and Chris Navarrette (Laredo – Lyndon B. Johnson) finished within six seconds of each other to take 52^nd, 53^rd, and 54^th spots in the results, respectively. Novelo timed 27:59.48, Lenfert clocked in at 28:01.60, and Navarrete timed 28:05.50.
 
Rounding out the Lions group in the conference championships, Nicholas Deutsch (Frisco) took 62^nd with a time of 28:30.71, Marshall Pate (Kaufman) finished 70^th with a time of 28:43.35, and Chris Flores (Rocksprings) placed 84^th with a mark of 29:23.18.
 
West Texas A&M's Innocent Murwanashyaka won the individual conference championship by over 20 seconds with a time of 25:16.51, well ahead of the runner-up, Erik Flores from UT Permian Basin's time of 25:38.72.
 
The Buffaloes also won the team conference championship, edging out St. Edward's by 101 points. Six of the seven runners that were factored into the team score for West Texas A&M finished in the top 16. The Lions posted a team score of 172, 10 back of Texas A&M International and two ahead of Oklahoma Christian.
 
WOMEN
Freshmen Katelyn Matthews (Burleson – Mansfield Legacy) and Alondra Campa (Kaufman) had the top two times for the Lions. Matthews finished 56^th in the six-kilometer race with a time of 25:03.89 and Campa took home 61^st place with a mark of 25:12.57.
 
Hannah Keil (xx, Germany) finished 81^st with a time of 26:05.35, Yenifer Martinez (Irving – Nimitz) placed 88^th with a time of 26:25.03, Evelyn Brown (Paris) timed 26:50.06 to finish 98^th, and Edith Branch (Denton – Lake Dallas) finished in 101^st place with a time of 26:57.06 to close out the Lions contingent.
 
West Texas A&M had the top finisher on the women's side as well. Florance Uwajeneza beat her teammate, Eleonora Curtabbi by times of 21:33.75 and 21:57.83, respectively. Despite having the top two finishers, the Buffaloes were edged out by DBU by three points for the team title. DBU posted a team score of 35, ahead of West Texas A&M's 38. A&M-Commerce had a team score of 354.



POST RACE INTERVIEW
 
UP NEXT
A select number of Lions will compete in the NCAA South Central Region Championships on November 6 in Lubbock. The field for the regional championships will be released next week.