Clayton State women finish eighth at Division II
South Regionals
Senior Angela Cobb heading to NCAA Division II National meet with fourth place finish

MORROW, Ga. — November 4, 2006 — For the third consecutive season, the Clayton State Laker women’s cross country team will be represented at the NCAA Division II championship meet, but this time around it will not be two-time All-American Allison Kreutzer.

On Saturday, senior Angela Cobb led the Lakers to an eighth place finish at the NCAA Division II South Region meet with a fourth place finish while securing one of two individual slots to the Nov. 18 national meet in Pensacola, Fla. Kreutzer, a junior, finished in 10th place as both she and Cobb earned All-Region honors.

“This was a tough field and as a team we did not rise to the occasion,” said head coach Mike Mead. “Angela ran another terrific race to earn her first trip to an NCAA championship race. I was certain Allison would make it for her third time, but it wasn’t her day this time around.”

Clayton State entered the meet ranked No. 4 in the South Region, but the Lakers just did not finish strong.

“We did not run aggressively the last half of the race. We talked about the importance of a strong finish and it never happened.”

Harding won the meet with 37 points, followed by Tampa (88) and Florida Southern (132) as all three teams secured berths to the NCAA meet. Clayton State, improving on last year’s 13th place finish, finished with 253 points, nine points behind conference foe Columbus State.

Cobb finished the 6K course in 22:00, a personal best and the fifth fastest time in Clayton State history. Kreutzer, who earned her third straight All-Region award, ran 22:38. Emry McKay from North Alabama won the individual title in 21:38.

The rest of the Clayton State scoring went with senior Cassandra Bolivar finishing in 58th (25:14), freshman Maria Larsen in 97th place (26:16) and junior Terrica Hamilton in 103rd place (26:29). Also finishing for the Lakers were junior Katelyn Stache and senior Melissa Fernandez.

The Clayton State men had two runners compete as junior Nelson Lopez finished 65th overall in 35:29 for 10K. Freshman Chris Ritchie ran 36:58 to finish 95th.