Heading into their first seasons of competition in the Lone Star Conference both Incarnate Word cross country teams find themselves picked halfway up the ladder in the pre-season polls.
The conference released its predictions based on a survey of coaches, administrators and media persons, and the vote said the previous champions would repeat in 2010. That would be Midwestern State on the women’s side and Abilene Christian on the men’s. And, by large margins. The Midwestern State women garnered 23 of 28 first place votes while the ACU men got 20 of 22 first place nominations.
For the women, Incarnate Word was predicted to finish fifth out of the 10 competing teams. A year ago, running in the Heartland Conference, the UIW women were second.
The Incarnate Word men were voted to finish fifth among the 10 LSC teams which will show up at the league championships in early November in Abilene. Last fall the Cardinals won the Heartland Conference title before the move to the Lone Star occurred on July 1, 2010.
WOMEN
PLACE SCHOOL POINTS
1 Midwestern State 359
2 Angelo State 310
T3 East Central Oklahoma 261
Central Oklahoma 261
5 West Texas A&M 249
6 Abilene Christian 239
7 Incarnate Word 178
8 Tarleton State 171
9 Eastern New Mexico 160
10 Southwestern Oklahoma 111
11 Texas A&M – Kingsville 97
12 Texas A&M – Commerce 70
13 Southeastern Oklahoma 50
MEN
PLACE SCHOOL POINTS
1 Abilene Christian 217
2 Tarleton State 193
3 Eastern New Mexico 145
4 Cameron 136
5 Incarnate Word 124
6 Angelo State 114
7 West Texas A&M 98
8 East Central 74
9 Texas A&M – Commerce 72
10 Texas A&M – Kingsville 37