JONESBORO, Ark. (10/29/2011) — The Arkansas State women finished fifth while the men placed 10^th at the Sun Belt Conference Cross Country Championships Saturday at Keriakes Park in Bowling Green, Ky.  Western Kentucky won both the men's and women's races.

Running the 8,000 meter course the ASU men were led by senior Jimmy Ngwiri, who finished in 29^th place out of 79 competitors with a time of 26:55. Following Ngwiri was freshman Luke Lindsley, who finished 41^st with a time of 27:43. Other strong competitors for the men were freshman Brock Westerman, who finished 51^nd (28:12), sophomore Devin Reed, who finished 55^th (28:27) and junior Briar Becton, who finished 57^th (28:34).

“For the men we were projected to finish seventh, but our number one runner, David Mills, came down with flu-like symptoms and finished out of the scoring, dropping us to tenth,” said ASU head coach Jim Patchell.

Junior Sam Salinas led the Red Wolves women on the 5,000 meter course. Salinas finished 14^th out of 82 competitors with a time of 18:43. She was closely followed by senior Chelsea Weaver, who finished 15^th with a time of 18:48, and freshman Rexi Parcells who finished 18^th with a time of 19:05. Also running strong for the women was freshman Chelsey Roberson, who finished 24^th with a time of 19:23. Rounding out the top five for A-State was freshman Tilda Helgesson, who finished 42^nd with a time of 19:48.

“On the women's side, we finished about where we thought we would after deciding not to run Kristina (Aubert), who is not quite back to 100 percent,” said Patchell.  “It was a solid performance, but we need to improve. I was especially happy with how Chelsey Roberson ran today. She showed a little bit of toughness and it's always good to see an athlete race like that.”