JOPLIN, Mo – Cross Country competed in the MIAA Championships Saturday morning with the Men competing at 10 AM and the Women competing at 11:15 AM,
 
The Men finished in 11th but ran their best overall team average of the season and had 5 personal bests on the day.
 
Freshman Austin Hock had a personal best 26:18, which is a 40 second personal best and also the 5^th best time for a freshman in the Newman Cross Country program. Austin Fullerton ran a personal best while Kevin Chemalmal was close to beating his own best time ever while leading the Men's team overall with a time of 26:09 and good for 72^nd. Asher Brown had a great showing while running with a stress fracture, finishing with a time of 26:24 and only 15 seconds behind Chemalmal.
 
Linus Limo came off a calf injury to run his best time of the year, ending with a time of 26:43 which was almost a minute under his previous best. Paul Sevart had a personal best of 27:03. The personal bests for Newman helped the team finish with a time of 26:23, their best overall time of the season. This was the best average time in 8 years for Newman.
 
"Although it's not going to show in the points, the men did a good job of competing. We will fare well in the region." Head Coach Josh Schepis said of his team's performance today. The Men will place in the top 50% in the region in 2 weeks. The gap time between the Men was between a minute.
 
On the Women's side, Patricia Limo finished a minute faster than she did at conference last season, finishing with a time of 22:28 which was good for 32^nd in this year's Women 6k.
 
The Women stepped up and did well despite having 2 drop outs in the race. Caroline Williams ran a personal best time of 24:57 and Lucy Brown ran well today finishing at 85th with a time of 24:39.
 
The Women's team finished in 11^th place and placed above Central Oklahoma and Lincoln.
 
"We didn't reach our goal of finishing top 10, but we will get another chance in a few weeks at the same course."  said Schepis. The Women will place in the top 18 out of 32 teams at regionals which has been the team goal.
 
The team will look to better their times and finish in the top half in next week's regional.