Sept. 5, 2009

Men's Results | Women's Results

Tulsa, Okla. - The University of Tulsa women's cross country team finished in first place and the men's team placed second at the Hurricane Festival on Saturday morning at Mohawk Park. Junior Melanie Cleland was the top collegiate finisher in the women's two-mile race with a time of 11:09.

Former Tulsa cross country standout Alex Becker, who ran unattached, finished first in the women's race with a time of 10:46. Becker still has track and field eligibility remaining and will compete in indoor and outdoor track this spring for the Golden Hurricane.

The women's team earned top-10 finishes from freshman Jaclyn Rollins, who placed fifth in 11:19, and senior Lana Kelley who finished 10th in 11:33. Freshman Erin Huddleston turned in a time of 11:35 to finish 12th and junior Laura Englehutt placed 15th in 11:41.

The Hurricane captured the meet title after defeating the other four teams Oklahoma State 24-31, Oral Roberts 22-37, Oklahoma 19-41, and Oklahoma Wesleyan 15-50 in duel scoring.

"I was pleasantly surprised by our women's team today," Head Coach Steve Gulley said. "We paced ourselves the first half and then let them race in the second, because I wanted to see what they can do in a race situation. I was very happy with what I saw, and if we can build off of this I think we are heading in the right direction for the rest of the season."

The men's team finished second behind Oklahoma State after picking up duel victories over Texas 27-30, Oklahoma 23-32, Oklahoma Baptist 21-34, and Oklahoma Wesleyan 15-45. The Hurricane lost to Oklahoma State 17-38 and Oral Roberts 27-30.

Sophomore Daniel LePage paced the men's team in the four-mile race with a ninth-place finish in 20:55. Sophomore Bill Martin finished right behind LePage in 10th place with a time of 21:02, and junior Brett Koehn placed 15th in 21:07.

Former Tulsa all-conference runner Eddie Henshaw finished first overall in 19:57, setting a new personal record. Oklahoma State's Johnathan Stublaski was the top collegiate finisher, placing second overall.

"It's an early meet and a lot of teams are training at this point in the season instead of racing," Gulley said. "So it's nice to have seven teams come out and compete, especially Texas traveling all the way up here. It's a nice compliment to our program to have this amount teams here competing."

The Hurricane is back in action on Sept. 19th when they head to the Missouri State Classic in Springfield, Mo.