Oct. 30, 2006

The Southwestern University men's and women's cross country teams competed at the Texas Lutheran Invitational on Saturday (Oct. 14) in the final race before the SCAC Championships with the women finishing second and the men seventh.

Junior Jessica Ratcliffe (Coppell, TX/Coppell HS) was the top-finisher for the Pirates, finishing seventh with a time of 24:53. Tamra Warner (Dale, TX/Lockhart TX) joined Ratcliffe in the top-10, taking ninth and crossing the finish line in 25:10.

The next three runners for SU all finished together in 13th, 14th and 15th places. Rachel Petrofes (College Station, TX/St. Joseph School) recorded a time of 26:00 for 13th. Karin Arnham (Manor, TX/Elgin HS) and Kristin Lahaie (Cypress, TX/St. Pius X HS) came in right behind Petrofes with times of 26:05 and 26:06, respectively.

In the men's race, Jameson Otto (Carrollton, TX/Creekview HS) took fourth place with a time of 26:17, just 18 seconds behind winnter Martell Munguia from Tec de Monterrey. Senior Dan Hagelberg (Allen, TX/Allen HS) was the second finisher for SU, crossing the line in 30:32 in 47th place.

Evan Hochschild (Houston, TX/Cypress Creek HS) took 49th, recording a time of 30:45. Eric Sterner (San Antonio, TX/Central Catholic Marianist HS) and Brian Schaefer (Spring, TX/Klein HS) placed 55th and 59th, respectively.

Trinity University won the women's race with a point total of 22. SU finished second with 55 points, followed by Texas Lutheran University (103), St. Mary's University (103) and UT-Permian Basin (135) rounding out the top-five. Prairie View A&M University won the men's race with 44 points with Texas A&M International University (61), Trinity (83), St. Edward's University (94) and UTPB (98) rounding out the top-five. Southwestern finished with 169 points in seventh.

Next up for the Pirate runners is the SCAC Championships in Danville, KY on October 28.