CLINTON, Miss.—After finishing third in last year's Southwestern Athletic Conference Cross Country Championship, the Lady Hornets were able to move back into the championship circle finishing the 5k run at the Watson Cross Country Course at Choctow Trails in first place with 31 points, easily outdistancing second-place finisher Grambling's 79 points.

The Lady Hornets top five finishers all finished among the first nine participants to cross the finish line.  Courtney Gooch (19:02.29) led the Lady Hornets with her third-place finish followed by Soyong Smith in fifth place (19:14.20).

Lutrisha Altidor (19:16.56) finished sixth while Kesia Derilus (19:29.65) was eighth and Raheema Hodges (19:41.09) was ninth.  Jerrica Mahone was 21^st (20:41.37) and Breana Kelly finished 26^th (20:51.26).
Gooch and Smith received First-Team All-SWAC honors while Altidor, Derilus and Hodges were all named second team.

Head coach Ritchie Beene knew it was going to be a tough race, but he was proud of the way his team ran the race.

“Courtney has been my leader all year,” Beene said.  “I knew if she was given the opportunity to come out and finish in the top three she would.  She had her opportunity and took full advantage of it.  We knew coming in we had a chance of our top runners finishing near the top of the pack.  We knew Grambling was going to run well and knew Prairie View would run well and the girls made up their mind when they got here they wanted to finish at the top of the race and they went for it and they were successful at it.”

The men's team has gone through their fair share of adversity this season, but still managed to finish a surprising seventh in the ten-team field.

Leading the way for the men was Carlos Flores (29:50.15) who crossed the finish line in 27^th place.  Vincent Butler finished 30^th (30:08.49) while Carleddy St. Jean was 39^th (31:38.77).  Demarcus Spencer was 45^th (32:58.40) and Ronald Jordan (42:05.58) finished 54^th.

“The men have been a work in progress all year,” Beene said.  “I am happy to see them finish the way they did, but I am not satisfied.  That is not normal for us.  We know we are a team that should compete for championships, but we have no guys out that are cross country runners and to see them go out and compete the way they did I am super  pleased with their effort.”

Both teams decided to run for a cause as they both had pink articles on during the championship runs.

“I am tickled pink today with the championship and that was our theme today,” Beene said.  “I talked with them in the team meeting last night and told them we wanted to run today for all the families that have been affected by breast cancer, and tickled pink is definitely a phrase to go with today.”

With the championship, the women have now qualified for the NCAA South Regional which will be held Nov. 12 in Tuscaloosa.