Sept. 11, 2007

IRVING, Texas - Stephen Samoei of UTEP and Aubrey Phillips of Tulane have been named this week's Conference USA male and female cross country runners of the week. Samoei became the second person to win back-to-back individual titles at the Lobo Invitational, while Phillips clocked a winning 5K time of 19:08.98 to guide Tulane to a first-place finish at the 27th Annual Southern Miss Invitational.

Conference USA Cross Country Athletes of the Week

MALE
Stephen Samoei, UTEP
Sr., Eldoret, Kenya
Samoei became the second person to win back-to-back individual titles at the Lobo Invitational this past weekend. The two-time All-American led all runners with a time of 24:19 in the 8K race, besting his time from last year and helping the Miners set a meet record for points.

FEMALE
Aubrey Phillips, Tulane
Sr., Baton Rouge, La.
Phillips clocked a winning 5K time of 19:08.98 to guide Tulane to a first-place finish at the 27th Annual Southern Miss Invitational. She led the Green Wave in the 12 team field in her first full-length race of the 2007 cross country season. For the second week in a row, the team captain claimed a spot among the top two finishers in a meet.

Sept. 11: C-USA CROSS COUNTRY NOTEBOOK

UPCOMING MEETS
Fri., Sept. 14
East Carolina at NC State Raleigh Invitational - Cary, N.C.
Houtson & UTEP at Lori Fitzgerald Invitational - El Paso, Texas
Southern Miss at Crimson Tide Classic - Tuscaloosa, Ala.

Sat., Sept. 15
Marshall at Queen City Invitational - Bowling Green, Ky.
Memphis at Old Timers Classic - Bowling Green, Ky.
Rice host 33rd Annual Rice Invitational - Houston, Texas
SMU at North Texas Duels - Denton, Texas
Tulsa at Southern Stampede - Joplin, Mo.
UAB & UCF at Vanderbilt Invitational - Nashville, Tenn.

LAST WEEK'S RESULTS
Fri., Sept. 7
Southern Miss (w) hosted 27th Annual Southern Miss Invite (Hattiesburg, Miss.) - W-2nd
Tulane (w) at 27th Annual Southern Miss Invitational (Hattiesburg, Miss.) - W-1st
UCF at Mountain Dew Invitational (Gainesville, Fla.) - M-2nd; W-3rd

Sat., Sept. 8
SMU (w) at Movin' Mavs Invitational (Arlington, Texas) - W-2nd
UTEP at Lobo Invitational (Albuquerque, N.M.) -M-1st; W-2nd

Conference USA has seven cross country programs ranked among the top 15 in United States Track & Field and Cross Country Association Regional Rankings, including UTEP men who appear at No. 2 in the Mountain Region. The Miners are also ranked No. 7 in the USTFCCA poll that was released Tuesday. SMU holds the highest regional ranking among the women's program at No. 4 in the South Central, followed by Rice at No. 6 and Houston at No. 12.

TEAM CAPSULES

EAST CAROLINA
Paced by freshman Brittany Copeland's first-place time of 18:45.27, the East Carolina women took second at the UNC Wilmington Seahawk Invitational Friday. Led by sophomore Jarrett Newby's time of 16:25.96, the men placed third. In addition to Copeland's individual title, teammate Nicole Briggs finished in second with a time of 18:52.65. Sophomore Samantha Lichtner and senior Tayleigh Davis also ran well, turning in times of 19:17.25 and 19:41.21, an individual best for Davis. Junior Matt Dennish notched a 10th place finish with a time of 16:39.19. Sophomore Andrew Nastasiak recorded a top-25 finish, completing the race in 21st with a mark of 17:15.55.

HOUSTON
Idle last week.

Next competition is set for Friday at the Lori Fitzgerald Invitational in El Paso, Texas.

MARSHALL
Idle last week.

Next competition is set for Saturday at the Queen City Invitational in Bowling Green, Ky.

MEMPHIS
Idle last week.

Set to open the 2007 schedule on Sept. 15 at the Old Timers Classic in Bowling Green, Ky.

RICE
Idle last week.

Set to open the 2007 schedule on Sept. 15 at the 33rd Annunal Rice Invitational in Houston.

SMU
Freshman Samantha Means won her first collegiate race at the Movin' Mavs Cross Country Challenge at Vandergriff Park Saturday, crossing the line in 11:30. Jessa Simmons finished just behind Means in second at 11:38, as SMU went 1-2, and all SMU runners finished in the top-20. As a team, the SMU women (44) finished second, besting North Texas (72) and Central Arkansas (75), but falling just short of host UTA (35). Ilyssa Pettigrew was 12th in 12:33, Krystal Rodriguez 14th in 12:38 and Kelsey Howard was 15th in 12:38. Erin Cochran rounded out the SMU scorers in 19th in 12:53.

SOUTHERN MISS
Southern Miss finished second at the 27th Annual Southern Miss Cross Country Invitational Friday at Tatum Park. The Golden Eagles had two runners in the top 10 and finished with 86 points. The team was led by newcomer Zuna Portillo fifth place time of 21:02.97 and Ronna Sandoval who finished eighth overall with a time of 21:55.47. Rounding out the Southern Miss finishers were Parris Hodges at No. 20 with a time of 22:54.87, Gerrelaine Alcordo at No. 25 with a time of 23:42.94, Kelley Rooney was No. 28 with a time of 24:10.94, and Kenika Weaver ran a time of 29:23.66.

TULANE
For the second-straight week, Tulane won a team title. The Green Wave just missed a perfect score, recording 16 points when their fifth runner finished sixth overall in the Southern Miss Invitational 5K run at Tatum Park. The first four runners from Tulane crossed the finish line in consecutive order. C-USA Athlete of the Week senior Aubrey Phillips led the way for the Green Wave finishing first overall. She was followed by freshmen Rebecca Coady and Lauren Dalrymple and seniors Jill Shriver and Savannah Moon who finished second, third, fourth and sixth, respectively. Last week at the Green Wave Invitational, Tulane scored a perfect 15 points to sweep its home meet.

TULSA
Idle last week.

Tulsa's next competition will be on Saturday, Sept. 15, at the Southern Stampede in Joplin, Mo.

UAB
Idle last week.

UAB will return to action on Saturday, Sept. 15, at the Vanderbilt Invitational in Nashville, Tenn.

UCF
UCF men's team took second and the women were third as the Knights opened the 2007 season at the Mountain Dew Invitational on Friday. Junior Jamie Rzepecki placed at the top of the Knights' line-up and 11th overall as she recorded a personal-best time of 18:34.37 in the 5K. Meanwhile, senior co-captain Karen Kozub was 21st with a time of 19:05.85 - five seconds short of matching her own personal record. The men were led by senior Paul Nielsen. Neilsen finished in 16th with a time of 26:18.70, just two seconds off his own personal record time in the 8K. Junior Daniel Conn went 26:25.67 for 22nd.

UTEP
UTEP men's team broke a meet record for points (19) as they placed five runners in the top six at the Lobo Invite Friday. They became the first men's team to win back-to-back team titles. Stephen Samoei led all runners, followed by Patrick Mutai, Japeth Ng'ojoy, Nicodemus Ng'etick and Dominic Tanui, respectively. All four runners finished within 40 seconds of Samoei. UTEP women garnered 45 points to place second behind New Mexico. Pacing the women was freshman Jepchirchir Kigen, who finished fifth with a 6K time of 18:54. Other finishers included Delia Cesar (11th, 19:20), Kelly Young (14th, 19:30), Crystal Garcia (18th, 19:59) and Megan Chojnacki (22, 20:13).

United States Track & Field/Cross Country Coaches Association REGION POLLS (9/10/07)
WOMEN'S
MOUNTAIN
1. Colorado
2. Colorado State
3. Brigham Young
4. Weber State
5. Texas Tech
6. New Mexico
7. Montana
8. Northern Arizona
9. Nevada-Reno
10. Utah
11. UTEP
12. Southern Utah
13. Utah State
14. Wyoming
15. New Mexico State

MIDWEST
1. Illinois
2. Minnesota
3. Iowa
4. Nebraska
5. Oklahoma State
6. Wichita State
7. Tulsa
8. Missouri
9. Missouri State
10. Oklahoma
11. Kansas State
12. Kansas
13. Northern Iowa
14. Iowa State
15. Illinois State

SOUTH CENTRAL
1. Arkansas
2. Baylor
3. Texas A&M
4. SMU
5. Lamar
6. Rice
7. Texas
8. TCU
9. Stephen F. Austin
10. UALR
11. LSU
12. Houston
13. UTPA
14. Sam Houston State
15. Arkansas State

SOUTH REGION
1. Florida State
2. Georgia
3. Tennessee
4. Florida
5. Vanderbilt
6. Georgia Tech
7. Auburn
8. Tenn-Chattanooga
9. Belmont
10. Mississippi State
11. UAB
12. Alabama
13. Georgia State
14. Florida Atlantic
15. Central Florida

MEN'S
MOUNTAIN
1. Colorado
2. UTEP
3. Northern Arizona
4. Brigham Young
5. Weber State
6. Air Force
7. Colorado State
8. Wyoming
9. Utah State
10. Texas Tech
11. New Mexico
12. Southern Utah
13. Montana State
14. Montana
15. Idaho State

MIDWEST
1. Oklahoma State
2. Iowa
3. Minnesota
4. Kansas
5. Iowa
6. Missouri
7. Tulsa
8. Illinois
9. Oklahoma
10. Southern Illinois
11. Drake
12. Nebraska
13. Illinois State
14. Kansas State
15. Bradley

SOUTH CENTRAL
1. Arkansas
2. Texas
3. Lamar
4. Texas A&M
5. Baylor
6. Stephen F. Austin
7. LSU
8.TexasA&M-Corpus Christi
9. Sam Houston State
10. Texas-Arlington
11. Rice
12. North Texas
13. UTPA
14. McNeese State
15. Louisiana Tech