Cross country finishes strong despite weak season

Meets for Southern’s cross country teams have been slim because of the lashings Hurricanes Katrina and Rita put on the Gulf Coast. But coach Johnny Thomas was optimistic and the Jaguars still had a strong presence at last week’s Southwest Athletic Conference Championships.
“I had big thoughts, although we had an abbreviated season because of circumstances,” Thomas said. “We normally have six to eight meets. We had three meets, plus the SWAC Championship.”
The high morale of the team was a key source in maintaining competitiveness. The men finished second, while the women finished sixth.
“We all went in positively, thinking we were going to come out on top,” said senior runner Anthony Lee. “I felt confident about winning.”
In the men’s division, Prairie View A&M captured their first conference title after earning 31 points in the men’s 8,000—meter run. Southern followed behind with 54 points with three runners placing in the top 10. They were Anthony Lee with a time of 29:02.92, Landon Gibson timing 29:12.77 and Darnell Parker with a time of 29:13.74.
“That was my last cross country meet and I was determined to win the race,” said Lee. “This was the best I’ve ever did since I’ve been running.”
Lee was one of the three runners from Southern selected to the 2005 All-SWAC men’s team. He was selected for first team, while Landon Gibson and Darnell Parker were selected to the second team.
On the women’s side, Southern competed in the women’s 5,000-meter run, placing sixth with 154 points. Precious Collins finished in the 13 spot.
Despite the season being affected by an undersized team, natural disasters and limited meets, Thomas said the team still had great expectations for next year.
“We felt good with the attitude of the kids,” Thomas said. (It) “Wasn’t like they couldn’t win it, but they didn’t do a bad job at all.”