Horned Frogs begin postseason at Mountain West Conference Championships
10/25/2006 12:00:00 AM | General
Mountain West Conference Championship Notes
Oct. 25, 2006
FORT WORTH, Texas - The TCU men's and women's cross country teams will converge in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Saturday for the 2006 Mountain West Conference Championships. The meet will be held at the Rose Park Golf Course on the campus of the University of Utah. The women's 6K will begin at 11 am CT and the men's 8K will follow at 12 pm.
The Mountain West Conference Championships will mark the first competition that the men's and women's teams will be together for since Sept. 30 at the Cowboy Jamboree in Stillwater, Okla. The women's team last competed at the NCAA Pre-Nationals on Oct. 14, but the men haven't competed in almost a month at the Cowboy Jamboree.
TCU's women's team is led by senior Calandra Stewart, who has led TCU in all three meets. Stewart has top-four finishes in two meets this season, and also placed 14th out of 245 runners in the NCAA Pre-Nationals. Stewart placed fourth at the Cowboy Jamboree and earned the second scoring position with a time of 17:31 in the 5K. In the women's 2-mile at the North Texas Invitational, Stewart placed third with a time of 11:06.38.
TCU's men's team is led by freshman Festus Kigen, who won the Texas A&M Invitational on Sept. 16 and was named Mountain West Conference Male Athlete of the Week for his performance.
The favorites at the meet are both the BYU men's and women's teams, which are ranked 21st and 11th, respectively. The BYU women's team has won all seven conference titles, while the BYU men's team has won six of seven MWC Championships and two straight.
All nine of the conference members have women's cross country teams and six schools have men's cross country squads. Schools without a men's team are San Diego State, Utah and UNLV.
At the 2005 championships, the TCU men's team finished sixth and the women finished eighth. The men were led by Kip Kangogo, who placed third with a time of 24:35.3. Leading the women was Cassie Hostick, who finished 29th with a time of 22:29.3.
