The women’s cross country season has come and gone at Missouri Southern, as the women placed sixth at the 2011 NCAA Division-II South Central regional meet on Nov. 5th. 

“I saw great effort from these young ladies at the meet, they battled tough and continued to improve on their times, but it takes a whole team to be solid to win regionals, we just didn’t have enough firepower to make it happen,” Vavra said. 

Marlee Tegenkamp led the way for the Lions as she just missed a first-place finish by eight seconds. 

She finished the 6k course in 21:45.60, good for second place; Tegenkamp earned a spot in the 2011 NCAA Division-II National Cross Country meet in Seattle on Nov. 19. Teammate Rachel Schrader turned in the team’s second-best finish as she placed No. 14 in a time of 22:20.60. Both Tegenkamp and Schrader were named All-Region. Olivia Francka rounded out the Lions’ top three finishers as she would place 35th in a time of 23:02.90.

“The team displayed great effort, they just came up a little bit short. I knew it would be a challenging season but we overcame a lot of things to have a successful season, Marlee and Rachel both had sensational seasons,” Vavra said.

The Lions were one of five MIAA teams to crack the top six teams at the regional meet.

“This group improved so much since the beginning of the season. They stayed focused, and always stepped up to the challenge of being leaders on the team,” Vavra said.

“Our young team went through a very valuable season that will help determine the future success of this team,” Vavra said.