As the men crossed the finish line, it was too close to call. After waiting for over ten minutes the officials announced that the Lions fell short of first place by just one point. The Missouri Southern men’s cross country team finished second at the MIAA Cross Country Conference Championship on Oct. 26, just seconds behind the University of Central Missouri.

“You could not tell until the very end,” said Assistant Coach Jamie Burnham. “Other people were keeping score, some were saying we had beat them by a point, some were saying they had beat us by a point, but we couldn’t tell until the official results.”

While most of the teams were familiar competition, the Central Missouri Mules were new competition for the men’s team.

“We knew that they were the team to give us the most trouble and the team to beat,” said Burnham.

There were a total of 84 runners from the MIAA competing for the conference title. Trailing the Lions, Southwest Baptist came in third place with 78 points and the University of Nebraska-Kearney in fourth with 80 points.

“I told the guys, look you just have to use this as motivation for regionals in two weeks,” said Burnham. “They have definitely put in the work, they are not going to lay down now and say, well we didn’t win conference, so were not going to do well at regionals or nationals.”

The Lions had eight of the top 19 runners on the 8k course, with junior Eric Schott leading the team earning fifth place with a time of 24:55.58. Close behind Schott in seventh place was senior Jake Benton with a time of 25:02.95. Just eight seconds behind was junior Andrew Webster, earning ninth place.

Not only did Schott, Benton and Webster all finish in the top ten of the race, they also earned all-MIAA honors.

On the women’s team, junior Dora Eastin also earned All-MIAA honors as she placed ninth in the women’s 6k course with a time of 22:11.89. Placing 21^st, sophomore Addie Mengwasser finished with a time of 22:51.46.

“Mengwasser has had a really good year, she has been our number two runner all year long,” said Burnham. “Her and Dora had to step into a leadership role because we lost our one and two runners last year. They have done a really good job.”

Sophomore Emily Harris finished at 32^nd place followed by freshman Kayla Bartelsmeyer in 41^st out of the 97 MIAA cross-country runners.

The women’s team is a young group of girls with made up of freshmen and sophomores except for Eastin.

“I think they (the women’s team) did better than I thought they would, so I was really encouraged by that,” said Burnham. “They really stepped up and competed well. They have never given up all year long.”

The cross country teams will travel to Augustana University in Sioux Falls, Sd., on Nov. 9 for the NCAA Regional Division II Championships.