2017 Heartland Conference Championship Results

THE RUNDOWN
WICHITA,  Kan. – St. Edward's University's women's cross country team earned runner-up at Saturday's Heartland Conference Championships while the SEU men placed sixth Saturday at the Cessna Activity Center.

The Hilltoppers' women placed a school-record three runners on the all-conference team as RACHEL FREI (6th), KIRSTEN DEFRANCE (8th), and KEOMI HAMLIN (11th) led St. Edward's to the best finish in program history at the conference meet. SEU scored 76 points with its five best runners finishing in the top 28 of the 84-woman field.

Prior to 2017, SEU's best finish as a team on the women's side was fifth in 2015, and individually Frei's 11th-place finish in 2016 was the highest. Frei is now the only two-time all-conference award winner for the SEU women while DeFrance and Hamlin joined her on the first team. Dallas Baptist scored a meet-low 17 points to win the championship for the women.

On the men's side, SEU entered with a goal of third place, however, the Hilltoppers struggled with the 20-mile per hour winds out of the south in the 8K race, and JOHN DANIELS was the top finisher for SEU, checking in at 27th place.

From there, the team was packed together as the Hilltoppers finished no worse than 41st in its top five to score 173 points as a team and finish in sixth for the second-straight season. Rogers State prevented Dallas Baptist from winning its third-consecutive conference championship winning the meet with 34 points compared to DBU's 35.


HIGHLIGHTS
• SEU's women placed second, the best-finish in school history at the Heartland Conference Championships with a previous best of fifth place in 2015.
• RACHEL FREI had the best individual finish in SEU women's history with a sixth-place finish, bettering her own 11th place finish from a year ago. Her sixth-place finish gave her back-to-back seasons on the First-Team All-Conference list.
• Frei's time of 23:02.00 was the second-best 6K time of the season for her.
• KIRSTEN DEFRANCE placed eighth overall to land a spot on the All-Heartland Conference First Team; her time of 23:14.6 was the second-best of the season for the senior.
• Junior KEOMI HAMLIN placed 11th to earn First-Team All-Conference honors and ran a time of 23:29.0, the best 6K time of her career.
• Freshmen AMELIA BARRETT (24th) and KAITLYN STARK (32) scored 23 and 28 points, respectively for SEU to aid in the Hilltoppers' runner-up finish rounding out the top-5 five finish on the team.

STAT OF THE MEET I
3 – St. Edward's placed three on the Heartland Conference Women's First-Team All-Conference list by placing in the top 12; the previous best came last year when RACHEL FREI was the lone member of the first team.

THEY SAID IT
SEU Head Coach David Chandler on the men's struggle and the women's triumph at the Heartland Conference Championships …
"Today was really big for our program. We've come a long way, and it's been a meaningful journey to build a program back up and take off year after year. We did struggle on the men's side, but we've got the regional meet. We aren't sixth in the conference on the men's side, we are so much better and the guys know that. The women did really special things today. It's a big step in the right direction, so next year's there's a top championship spot, and let's go for it."

SEU Junior RACHEL FREI on Saturday's Runner-Up Finish …
"It was so amazing to see this today because I know the girls were worried. This course wasn't most ideal, especially with the wind. But, we came out here, we kicked butt. KEOMI HAMLIN after dealing with injury came out today and got 11th place. Kirsten [DeFrance] pushed me today, we pushed each other to get eighth and sixth place. And, then the girls in the back came forward and really showed themselves today, and a lot of girls came through even though they had missed meets. And, I'm really proud because we got through these obstacles … It was an amazing, super, awesome finish, so we are super happy to have gotten second today."

SEU Senior KIRSTEN DEFRANCE on her strategy for Saturday's race …
"Going into the race, I just focused on staying with Rachel [Frei], she always pushes me. I lost her around the second mile and slowed down a little bit, but then Keomi [Hamlin] came up and we started running together and she pushed me through."

SEU Junior KEOMI HAMLIN on the program building to this point after re-starting in 2015 …
"The last three years we've been working really hard as a team. Coming in my freshman year we didn't finish as high in conference. But, we steadily have been just building each other up, and sticking together in practices, learning more about each other and becoming stronger as a team. Today that really showed, and we came out and placed second and surprised everybody out here."

SEU Junior JOHN DANIELS on the men looking to rebound following a disappointing finish at the Heartland Conference Championships …
"It was a little disappointing coming out here and not finishing with a couple of my teammates as all-conference. But, that doesn't reflect the great year that we've had as a team. We've had some people come out and really smash their personal records, and we've really had a good year leading up to this. The season's definitely not over we have regionals coming up, and this is just a speed bump for us. We plan on getting back on the horse and competing well at regionals."

WHAT'S NEXT
Selected runners from each Hilltoppers team will head to Canyon, Texas Nov. 4 for the NCAA South Central Regional Championships at the Range.