Women’s cross country ran to a third place finish Oct. 11 and to the No. 21 position nationally.

The Lions finished ahead of all other conference teams with 116 points and a time of 1:37:04.42. The closest team was Central Missouri State University, who placed fourth with 123 points.

Truman State University and Pittsburg State University came in fifth and sixth, respectively. TSU had 137 points and a time of 1:37:50.94, PSU had 149 points and a time of 1:37:58.71. The top two teams were the University of Southern Indiana, with 73 points, and host-university Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, with 99 points. Patty Vavra, head women’s cross country coach, said the win was a confidence builder.

“I think we did good,” said sophomore Megan Russell. “It was a good chance to compete against the top teams in our conference.”

“We were able to run well two weeks in a row, we have steadily improved over the season but the last race at Rolla we proved we could be a pretty good team,” Vavra said

At the Missouri/Illinois Border Wars the team was able to prove it was a good team two meets in a row and “it wasn’t a fluke this is a team that can be very competitive in the conference and region,” she said. Up next for the Lions is the MIAA Conference Championship held at Truman State University in Kirksville on Oct. 25.

“There will be tough competition,” Russell said.

She said the team “will be strong” and be able to get through the competition. Vavra said the conference will be a close meet.

“It’s going to be like it has been in the last several years, it’s going to be a real dogfight when it comes to the conference championship,” she said.

Vavra said individual runners help with who wins, even the athletes who come in at the end add to the team’s total points. The team’s total points determines who wins and goes on to NCAA Division II South Central Regional meet Nov. 8 in Commerce, Texas.

On the men’s side of the meet, the men’s cross country team ran into stiff competition, placing fifth at the Border Wars. Tom Rutledge, head men’s cross country coach, said the team has never lost the Border Wars before. Missouri Southern finished the race with a time of 2:13:03.25 and a score of 123. Coming in ahead of the Lions were the University of Southern Indiana with 73 points and a time of 2:11:42.88. USI came in first position; in second was Rend Lake College with a time of 2:12:31.14 and a total of 87 points. In third was the University of Indiana with 99 points and a time of 2:12:25.84. Placing a spot in front of the Lions was Paradise Valley Community College with a time of 2:13:06.54 and 122 points.

“They (other conference universities) didn’t run their full teams,” Rutledge said.

“A lot of it is trying to play head games, we don’t do that at Missouri Southern. We go out, we race and we do the best we can and we go with it. We are what we are.”

Rutledge said the team likes to run at the head of the pack and makes the other teams catch them. He said this is what has propelled the team to the top of conference. During the conference championships the Lions will not change the way they runs.

“You don’t change things, you try to do what you do best,” he said.

“The conference meet is a whole different animal. Truman will be tough to beat at their home place, but we can do it. We are going to need to have a extremely good race.”

He said it is the first time conference teams are evenly matched. Before the Lions had been on top of the conference standings.