Sept. 17, 2005

HOUSTON, Texas - Junior Ashley Monteau raced to a first-place finish to lead the Stephen F. Austin Ladyjack cross country team to fourth place in the Rice Invitational Saturday. Monteau completed the 4,000-meter course in 14:24.09, winning by a margin of 13 seconds.

As a team, the Ladyjacks followed Monteau's strong performance by placing the next four runners between the 19th and 28th positions. SFA finished with a team score of 94, trailing third-place team Texas-San Antonio by 10 points.

"It was a great opener," SFA coach Lou Snelling said. "The girls got some good positive experience that we can take into our more important races."

Junior LaKoa McKeever finished 19th with a time of 15:55.89. Sophomore Amber Bagwell (15:56.94) was 22nd, sophomore Katrina Nicholas (16:10.20) took 25th, junior Kimbri Lettkeman (16:24.02) finished 29th and sophomore Kirsten Wieseman came across the line in 37th place with a time of 16:45.63.

"The race was only a 4K," Snelling said. "I think if we had had another kilometer, the results would have been different. We were coming on strong. We had a pretty conservative start since this was the first meet of the season. Overall, it was a real positive experience."

Monteau is the defending Southland Conference cross country champion. She won the 2004 race with a time of 20:24.27, nearly a full minute ahead of the second-place runner. Snelling said he expects another strong season from the junior.

"She's obviously very fit right now," the coach said. "It's going to be a lot of fun for her this season."

SFA's next scheduled cross country action is Oct. 3 at the Northwestern State Invitational in Natchitoches, La.

-- SFA --