Avery, Richards lead Lady Govs to sixth-place finish at OVC Championships

APSU Women’s Cross Country

Cookeville, TN – Junior Janelle Avery and freshman Xiamar Richards finished among the top 25 to lead the Austin Peay State University women’s cross country team to a sixth-place finish at the 2010 Ohio Valley Conference Women’s Cross Country Championships, Saturday morning, at Southern Hills Golf Course.

Avery finished the five-kilometer course in 19:53.85 and finished 24th. Richards followed immediately in 25th with a time of 19:56.31. Eastern Kentucky’s Katherine Pagano won the women’s championship with a time of 18:23.00.

Their finishes led Austin Peay to a sixth-place tie with host Tennessee Tech, both teams finishing with 181 points. It was the best finish by a Lady Govs team in the championship since 2002 when they also were sixth. Eastern Kentucky placed all of its top five runners among the top 10 to win the team championship with 20 points.

“Considering how young this group is, with six freshmen and two juniors running, we’re pretty excited about the future,” said APSU head coach Doug Molnar. “Any time you can put together a strong performance with such a young group and you have everyone returning next year it’s really exciting. It was a solid performance by them today.”

Freshman Kendra Kirksey followed Avery and Richards with a 32nd-place effort, finishing the course in 20:17.36. Freshman Miranda Weed was next in 51st (21:27.31) while sophomore Alyssa Molnar’s 56th-place run (21:45.10) rounded out the Lady Govs scoring five.

Completing Austin Peay’s effort at the championship were freshmen Kayla Satterly (70th, 23:31.31), freshman Megan Barbarotto (73rd, 24:21.12) and freshman Shannon Christian (74th, 24:22.50).