" You can't aLways reLy on others. " r !lHtmy Notl Abilene 34 A&t\1 Kingsville 51 Harding 112 A&M Commerce 121 Angelo 158 Tarleton 162 OBU 198 Central Okla. 209 East Central Okla. 254 " They~i~ the best job they pmibLy couL~ haJle ~one. " CROSS CO The 1997 men 's cross country team completed itssecond year in thenewLoneScar Conference, fmishing third out of 11 teams. They displayed admirable versatiliry in their transition from theArkansas Intercollegiate Cpnference to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division II . Led by seniors Seth Crum, TommyNoeland]onathanDandy, themenplaoed d1ird behindAbilene Chris ti an and Texas A&MKingsville in the Lone Star Conference meet. They also placed well in the Rhodes Invitational meet, finishing seventh out of 14 teams. "The new conference was a lot harder, "Noelsaid. "There was a lot more competition. " The Bisons handled the increased competition effectively, especiallywith the absence of their top three Kenyan runners whowere red-shined this season. "We fan in the Lone Star Conference lastyear,"Dandysaid. ''We knewprettymuch what to expect. I th ink we did pretry well. We were rea lly happy with third place. This summer when I trained , I didn't know that three guys on the team would be redshirted. Everyone had to assume a different role. Even though we were not as competitive, we grew closer. " .' Coach Bryan Phillips agreed w ith his runners abo'u t the stiffness of the competition in the Lone Star Conference. "It's a very competitive conference," Phillips said. "The Lone Star Conference is a pretry tough conference because of several teams, like Abilene and A&M Commerce, but that's what we expected. " Crum said, "The Lone StarConference was definitely a different leveL We did really well with what we had. " Phillips was especially proud of his team's performance given the obstacles they had to overcome. "They did the best job they possibly could have do ne," Phillips said. "Ourtop three runners were red-shirred this year. For the rest of the team to get third in the Lone Star Conference meet was really good. " Dandy said he fe lt that the team did we ll overa ll at the LSC meet. "Seth Crum had a betterthan-average run. Donnie Swver and Tyson Ledgerwood ran [he best race o f their season, and that made a lot of difference in the outcome." The three memberswho did not compete this year were Albert Talbut,] apheth Langat, and]onah Tanui, the number one runner for the Bisons last season. "Theywere red-shined so that theywould have an opportuniry to come back and try tograduate and so d1ey can have five years of school," Phillip said. The absence of these runners allowed Noel, Dandy and Crum to step up and be the top three mnneTS. "I twas neat to be the leaders," Noel said. - BJ. Marshall Men's Cross COlmtry . Ffrst Row: Tyson Ledgerwood, Donnie Stover, Tommy Noel, Eric Williamson, Seth Crum. Second Row: japh Langat, j onathan Dandy, Albert TabU!. Ben Hammond, j onah Ttwui. Photo by jeff MOn/gomely. SpOTtS 221 f'iilI
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