RESULTS ||ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Oklahoma Baptist won its third consecutive Great American Conference Women’s Cross Country Championship title as the Bisons placed fives runners inside the top 10 on Saturday at Ouachita Baptist University. East Central’s Anna Mora claimed the individual title.
Freshman Jana le Roux led the Bison pack with her third-place finish. She became the third Bison named GAC Freshman of the Year in the last five years. Allison Derry placed fourth, followed by Tesa Potter and Berkley Price. Kayla McGruder crossed the line in 10
th as the Bison tallied 28 points, 22 ahead of the Tigers.
Mora and Alliyah Regg-Wajid separated from the pack early to become the fifth set of teammates to finish first and second at the GAC Women’s Championships. Mora, who also won in 2016, joined Harding’s Ewa Zaborowska as the only two-time individual champions in GAC history.
Harding finished in third, followed by Southern Arkansas. Nieves Megias led the Lady Bisons with a ninth-place result. SAU’s Carley Hale took seventh. Aubre Gilreath paced Arkansas Tech to a fifth-place finish. She became the Golden Suns’s first First-Team runner since Laura O’Dowd in 2013.
Southeastern Oklahoma State, led by Rebekah Christman’s 17
th-place, came in sixth. The hosting Ouachita Tigers took seventh as they registered their best team finish since 2013. Emerson Turner placed 12
th, the top individual finish by a Tiger since they joined the GAC.
Southern Nazarene, Northwestern Oklahoma State, Henderson State, Southwestern Oklahoma State and Arkansas-Monticello rounded out the team scoring.
The top 10 runners earned First-Team All-GAC honors while finishers 11 through 20 placed on the All-GAC Second Team.
The GAC also recognized its top scholar athletes. Three standouts – East Central’s Abbie Winchester, Harding’s Kaylee Rice and Southern Nazarene’s Rachel Hurts - earned the Elite Scholar Athlete as they all own a 4.00 grade-point average.
A total of 11 received the Distinguished Scholar Athlete honor – Arkansas-Monticello’s Jordan Kane and Carrie Lawson, Henderson State’s Martha Mosqueda and Mikayla Braun, ECU’s Danielle Davidson, Harding’s Parker Kane, Oklahoma Baptist’s Derry, Ouachita’s Alyssa Reece, SAU’s Hale, Southern Nazaren’s Nancy Jurado and SWOSU’s Makynna Koper.