Oct. 27, 2007

The Lipscomb men's and women's cross country teams both finished sixth in the Atlantic Sun Conference Championships Saturday morning.

The meet, held at Percy Warner Park in Nashville, was produced by Lipscomb University in conjunction with the conference.

The women were paced by Carolyn Latham, who earned All-Conference honors with a 7th place finish. She is just the third Lipscomb woman ever to earn A-Sun All-Conference honors in Cross Country.

Following Latham for the Lady Bisons were Erin Pyles (21st), Jenny Randolph (24th), Caitlin Anderson (35th), Paloma Floden (45th), Paige Griffin (57th), Julie Alley (60th) and Valerie Winkler (71st). The women ran without top five runner Shannon Shoemake who incurred an injury earlier in the week.

Latham and Griffin was the only Lady Bisons who competed last year in the A-Sun Championships. Latham finished 45th in that race.

The women's sixth place finish ties their highest ever A-Sun Conference result and equals last years performance. It was one place behind their ranking coming into the meet.

For the men, Ryan Chastain led the way with a 17th place finish. He was followed by Jordan Wilson (22nd), Jeff Hoover (35th), Jared Carlson (37th), Jonathan Williams (47th), Andrew Shankles (52nd) and Paul Wright (55th). David Wolfe and Clint Carter fell out of the race.

The men's sixth place finish is one spot better than last year and one spot lower than their all-time best A-Sun finish of fifth. The men were ranked seventh in the conference coming into the meet.

"We've had a terrific season," said head coach Bill Taylor. "Although I'm disappointed with our team finishes today, we are developing rapidly and are going to be very good very soon. These are two young and talented teams and they are learning fast, but they still lack experience. We return every single runner for both programs next year and I know that everyone has immense desire to create one of the top programs in the nation."

Latham, Pyles and Chastain will continue their season by representing Lipscomb University at the NCAA I South Regional Championship meet in Gainesville, Fla. The meet, hosted by the University of Florida, will take place on Nov.10. The women will compete over the 6-K distance, while Ryan will race 10-K.

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