The Lion’s Roar / Jay Love
Southeastern’s women and men cross country teams attended the Southland Conference Championship in Natchitoches last week. Freshman Celia Zaeringer led all Lions by finishing 12th, for which she took home an All-Southland honorable mention

Women’s and men’s Cross Country teams attended the Southland Conference Championship with the women’s team placing 9th and the men’s team placing 11th. 

The championships were held Monday, Nov. 3 in Natchitoches. 

The top-15 finishers in each race earned all-conference honors. These 15 finishers made up the first, second and honorable mentions honors. Each group contained five runners for both the men and women’s teams.  

The top Lady Lion was freshman Celia Zaeringer, who placed 12th overall with a time of 21:26.9. Zaeringer also received honorable mention honors. 

“Celia did great. For her to come out and do what she did as a freshman is incredible,” said head coach Sean Brady. “She is the top distance runner from Louisiana that is competing in our conference.”

Other top finishers from the Lady Lions were freshman Clarissa Smith, placing 39th with a time of 23:01.9, junior Katie Neil placing 82nd with a time of 25:49.9, junior Jennifer Ernst placing 91st with a time of 29:21.7 and freshman Ivy Ainsworth placing 92nd with a time of 33:46.8.

Placing in the top for the men was junior Harry Wiggins. Wiggins placed 20th overall with a time of 24:59.8.

The other top finishers for the men’s team were freshman Isaiah Gilbert placing 64th with a time of 27:04.7, freshman Michael Perez placing 71st with a time of 27:22.9, sophomore Stephen Cassingham placing 72nd with a time of 27:23.0, sophomore Leo Moreno placing 80th with a time of 28:08.0, sophomore Alex Holden placing 83rd with a time of 28:25.09, senior Tyler Waggenspack placing 88th with a time of 29:42.9 and junior Joseph Edwards placing 94th with a time of 31:58.0.

According to Brady, the average for the men’s team was 26:59, which was an improvement from where they began the season. 

“As a whole, I think that the team did well. We improved from last year, and that is what matters,” said Zaeringer. “There was tough competition this year. Almost everyone got personal records. We are a very young team, most of us are freshman, and I think that we have a lot of potential.”

The head coach agreed on the statistics for the improvement of times. 

“It was a great day to run and the course was fast. I think we performed well,” said Brady. “It just happened to be a very tough group this year. We are a young team, and we’re anxious to see the possibilities that are going to come in the next few years.”