FAYETTEVILLE, Ark.-The ORU women's cross country team finished 16th out of 34 teams, while the men's team finished 27th at the 2011 Chile Pepper Festival, Saturday morning. The race, one of the largest cross country meets in the country, presented new challenges to the Golden Eagles as the men and women raced at the 10k and 6k distances, respectively, for the first time this season.
The women scored 429 team points and had an average time of 22:36.64, finishing nine points back of North Texas and just ahead of TCU. Texas won the women's team title with 85 points and an average time of 20:55.56.
Kristen Radcliff returned to form after a brief struggle at the Cowboy Jamboree, carding a top-20 finish out of nearly 300 runners this week with a 19th-place time of 21:02.8. Sheilah Ndasym was not far behind as she continued to run well, finishing 33rd in 21:28.9.
Samantha Watson's time of 22:47.2 put her 110th, while Marta Adamiec ran 23:23.6 to finish 147th overall. Casady Ashcraft ran 24:20.7 for 191st, while Tiffany Hagan (25:27.3) and Erin Patterson (25:36.6) ran together for the majority of the race before finishing in 234th and 239th, respectively.
Marrisa Thomas rounded out the finishers for the women with a 27:12.8 finish for 276th place.
For the men, ORU tallied 774 points and had an average 10k time of 37:59.30. Oklahoma State won the team title with 25 points.
Shadrack Koech finished 59th out of nearly 300 men's competitors with a time of 31:08.5 to lead the Golden Eagles. Leif Peterson's time of 34:27.5 put him 205th overall, and Ryan Masey was close behind at 34:44.9 to claim 220th.
Filling out the ORU roster, Tyler Banks ran 38:13.9 to finish 276th, and Jarrett Davis finished in 51:21.7 for 288th.
Both Golden Eagle teams will take the next weekend off before hosting the 2011 Summit League Cross Country Championships on campus, Saturday October 29.
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