--- ~ -~~~~~~~~~~~~~------------------------------------........................... Achieving High Rankings in NAIA Women Win Conferenee Title For the past eight years, lady tracksters in the Arkansas Intercollegiate Conference have grown quite used to seeing the black and gold jerseys of the Lady Bisons passing them on the way to yet another conference title. A first, second and third place finish by Bisons Jessica Barraza, Ketty J~nsen and Edna Duran secured Harding's domination and their ninth straight AIC/ District 17 championship. Harding outdistanced the University of Arkansas at Monticello, scoring 27 points, followed by UAM with 39. Arkansas College had 72 points, Ozarks had 104 and Southern Arkansas finished with 109. Barraza, Jensen and Duran made the AllConference team, along with Keri Hutchison, who finished in seventh place. Mandy Crider finished in 16th place and Heather Muir came in at 19th to round out the Lady Bisons ' showing in the conference meet. Barraza's winning time of 20:37 was well short of her season best of 18:54, recorded at a meet in Rolla , Mo. Jensen followed with a 21 :08, Duran with a 21:39, and then Hutchison rounded out the scoring with a sixth place finish , timed at 22:08. But lest the Lady Bisons appear complacent with their constant domination of the AIC, Harding had its eye set on bigger things this season. "I suspect we were looking a little beyond this meet," Coach Ted Lloyd said. "The other teams had not given us much trouble so far, and the team was thinking about improving on the 23rd-place finish at nationals last year." Harding finished their breeze through the AIC without an appearance in the top 20 all year. But the Lady Bisons did receive votes, and a power rating of top NAIA teams ranked them in the 19th spot nationally. A disappointing performance against 40 teams in the national meet in November earned them 27th place in the competition. - Bart Blasengame r g University 27 t•hiv~rsity ofArkartsas, ~Mofiticelfo 39 ~rkansas College 72 <tr~ $&t,.-· ·, ~ollege of the Ozarks 104 HeatherMuir sprints to thefinish. The Lady Bisons traveled to Wisconsin to compete in the nationals. Photo byJt:/fMontgomery. 254 Women 's Cross Country Sports The Lady BisoJZS hang tough, racing across thefield. The Lady BisoJZS tookfourofthe top spots in the district championship nieel. Photo by JeffMontgome1y.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc5NA==