Cross Country Set For Southern Stampede

NORMAN, Okla. -- The OU men's and women's cross country teams head to Joplin, Mo., Saturday, Sept. 18, for the Southern Stampede.

The women begin the action at 9 a.m. with a 5k run and the men follow at 9:45 a.m. with an 8k race.
National qualifier Jessica Eldridge (Broken Arrow, Okla.) returns to action for her first cross country meet since the NCAA Championships in November 2003.

“I'm excited to see the whole women's team in action for the first time,” head coach Rodney Rothoff said. “It will be great to see them compete with a year of maturity.”

Joining Eldridge for their first competition of the season are fellow sophomores Nicola Maye (Summerfield, Jamaica) and Catherine Odell (Enid, Okla.). Maye finished the 2003 season earning all-region honors with a 23rd-place finish at the NCAA Midwest Regional. Odell placed 32nd in the same meet.

Sophomore transfer Aja Clark (Ardmore, Okla.), who finished a team-best 26th for the women, should also be very competitive in her first 5k race as a Sooner. Clark has a personal best of 18 minutes, 35 seconds, which would be the eighth-fastest 5k time set by a Big 12 runner this season.

This week's meet will be very competitive.

“This meet is a great opportunity to run with a lot of people on the line,” Rothoff said. “It's an opportunity to correct the mistakes from the last meet in Kansas.”

Some of the other teams scheduled to compete in this event include the Arkansas men, the Oklahoma state men, Southwest Missouri State and Tulsa.

The Razorback men held the U.S. Cross Country Coaches Association No. 1 ranking in the South Central region for the entire 2003 season.

In the first meet of the season, Sept. 11, the OU men placed third overall on the efforts of top-10 finishes by sophomore Jason Coleman (Watonga, Okla.), second, and junior Blake Culp (Bartlesville, Okla.), ninth. Coleman and Culp ran their career-best 8,000-meter races, finishing in 25:19.1 and 25:48.9, respectively.

Last Time Out

The Sooner men took third place at the Kansas State Wildcat Inviational in Topeka, Kan. The OU women's B-team finished sixth overall.

Coleman finished second to Kansas State's Matthew Chesang in the men's 8k race with a career-best time of 25:19.1

Culp also finished in the top 10 with a career-best 8k run of 25:48.9.

Senior Andrew Call (16th, 26:24.6) and sophomore Salah Hussein (19th, 26:28.7) added two more top-25 finishers for the Oklahoma men. Redshirt freshman Jason Penland (27:00.8) rounded out the Sooners five scorers with a 26th-place effort.

In her first race with her new team, Clark led the Sooner women in her with a 26th-place run of 23:59.7. Senior team captain Jackie Dubois was next at 40th with a time of 24:36.8. Oklahoma State's Mary Davies won the women's 6k race, running the course in 21:13.4.

Sophomores Andrea Bonner (43rd, 25:04.1), Julie Swagerty (50th, 25:38.4) and senior Emily Leonard (62nd, 28:46) completed the women's starters.

The women's top-three runners, sophomores Eldridge, Maye and Odell, did not race in the meet.

University of Oklahoma Athletics

Cross Country Set For Southern Stampede

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