Brenau Makes Their Highest Finish At Conference
November 7, 2012
This
past Saturday the Brenau cross country team traveled to Clinton, Miss.,
to attend their SSAC Conference Meet held at Mississippi State's home
course "Choctaw Trails". The sun was shining and there was a little fog
hovering over the course due to the temperature in the air of 57
degrees. These were perfect conditions for a race.
Last year Aikens finished 7th and narrowly missed being the top freshman of the year by a second. She qualified for Nationals last year and will be going back to Vancouver, Wash., again this year to represent Brenau University in the NAIA National meet. Aikens told her coach that last year she was so amazed at all the elite athletes and really just took everything in for the trip to Nationals, but this year she plans to focus on the race and finish with a personal record.
Not only Aikens shined at the conference meet this year, but the team finished in 4th place. This is the highest a Brenau cross country team has placed at the SSAC Conference meet. Last year the team finished in 7th place and had an average team pace of 21:14. This year the team average pace was 20:31.
Ana Lopera, junior from Flowery Branch, Ga., really stepped it up and finished 2nd for the team and 18th in the SSAC. Lopera set a new personal record for herself of 20:31. Freshman Alyssa Sale of Cumming, Ga, finished 3rd for the team and 20th in the SSAC. Rounding out the top seven for Brenau were Sarah Saenz, sophomore from Lawrenceville. Ga.; Ashley Tolland, graduate student from Cumming, Ga.; Tyana Luna, freshman from Lawrenceville, Ga.; and Jasmine Ray, freshman from Appling, Ga.
Freshman
Deishane' Honeycutt (Stone Mtn., Ga.) finished out her first cross country season with a
personal record of 22:33. Coach McIntyre feels Deishane' will be a key runner for us
next year. Senior Mimi Sapra (Alpharetta, Ga.) finished out her season with the Brenau
Tigers by setting a new personal record of 22:57.
This
was Brittany Aikens' (Braselton, Ga.) third time as a college athlete to
run on the Choctaw Course, and her knowledge of the course paid off. Sophomore Aikens finished "Runner Up." She led the race for
three miles but was outkicked on the climb up to the finish line by
junior Erica Segars of Southern Wesleyan University. Aikens finished
in a time of 19:12, just four seconds behind Segars. Brittany has again
set a record for top Brenau cross country finisher at Conference.
Last year Aikens finished 7th and narrowly missed being the top freshman of the year by a second. She qualified for Nationals last year and will be going back to Vancouver, Wash., again this year to represent Brenau University in the NAIA National meet. Aikens told her coach that last year she was so amazed at all the elite athletes and really just took everything in for the trip to Nationals, but this year she plans to focus on the race and finish with a personal record.
Not only Aikens shined at the conference meet this year, but the team finished in 4th place. This is the highest a Brenau cross country team has placed at the SSAC Conference meet. Last year the team finished in 7th place and had an average team pace of 21:14. This year the team average pace was 20:31.
Ana Lopera, junior from Flowery Branch, Ga., really stepped it up and finished 2nd for the team and 18th in the SSAC. Lopera set a new personal record for herself of 20:31. Freshman Alyssa Sale of Cumming, Ga, finished 3rd for the team and 20th in the SSAC. Rounding out the top seven for Brenau were Sarah Saenz, sophomore from Lawrenceville. Ga.; Ashley Tolland, graduate student from Cumming, Ga.; Tyana Luna, freshman from Lawrenceville, Ga.; and Jasmine Ray, freshman from Appling, Ga.
Freshman
Deishane' Honeycutt (Stone Mtn., Ga.) finished out her first cross country season with a
personal record of 22:33. Coach McIntyre feels Deishane' will be a key runner for us
next year. Senior Mimi Sapra (Alpharetta, Ga.) finished out her season with the Brenau
Tigers by setting a new personal record of 22:57.Coach
McIntyre said, "This has been a phenomenal year for the team. The
girls have really worked hard and brought their times closer together so
they finish strong as a team. Our best performance as a team this
season was at the Sand Shark Invitational, where we had a team average
of 19:58."