Monroe, La. - For the fourth-straight year, the Western Kentucky University women's cross country team has won the Sun Belt Conference cross country championship. Today at Louisiana-Monroe's Selman Field Course, the Lady Toppers outlasted Middle Tennessee to defeat the Blue Raiders in the 5,000-meter team race by 12 points. The WKU men tied with Troy for fifth place in the team scoring.

　　Janet Jesang succcessfully defended her SBC cross country individual title, navigating the muddy and water-laden course in 19:08.83. Joining Jesang on the all-league team was Marion Kandie, who took runner-up honors with a time of 19:29.53. That one-two punch is what helped propel the Lady Toppers past MTSU, as three Blue Raiders earned all-conference honors as top-10 finishers. Eimear O'Brien was third for WKU, just missing her bid at another all-SBC honor with an 11th-place finish of 21:09.01. Finishing 14th overall was Michelle Finn, who clocked 21:19.62, and rounding out the scorers for WKU was Ana Carinena, who was 25th at 22:05.29.

　　The Hilltoppers tied with Troy for fifth in the team scoring, tallying 161 points. Patrick Cheptoek had a strong showing for WKU, earning all-SBC honors with a third-place time of 26:57.78 over the 8,000-meter course. The number two finisher for the Tops was Mark Bowers, who clocked 29:23.28 for 30th. In 35th was Cosmas Bor at 29:33.55, while Patrick Jenkins was 39th at 29:49.22, and Sebastian Rhode was 58th at 30:44.93.

　　"I am extremely proud of both teams' efforts under fairly difficult circumstances," says WKU head coach Erik Jenkins. "The course presented several challenges due to the heavy rains over the past several weeks here in Monroe, but our women ran outstanding."

　　The Lady Toppers made league history Saturday in winning the school's fourth-straight SBC cross country title. The longest streak before that was three consecutive titles, which had been accomplished twice before by the WKU women (the WKU men have the longest streak for male SBC teams at six-in-a row in the mid 1980s). That now runs the WKU women's track and cross country program to 12 straight Sun Belt team titles, as the Lady Toppers have come away victorious in every league championship since winning the school's first indoor track title in 2006.

　　Women's assistant coach Michelle Scott was recognized by her peers for the second-straight year as SBC Coach-of-the-Year.