After nobody from Loyola placed in the top ten at the NAIA Region XIII Championship, neither the men’s nor the women’s team will send a runner to the national tournament.

That hasn’t happened since 2001.

In a bizarre turn of events, the Loyola runners were fighting for both the conference and regional championships.

Two weeks ago, officials rescheduled the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Championship to coincide with the regional because of problems with the course. Scored at the same time, the runners’ times last Saturday counted towards not only the regional, but also towards the conference championship.

Marketing sophomore Tyler Kaufman and biology freshman Daniel Pattillo were out with injuries for the race. Mass communication senior Mary Erin Imwalle, the defending conference champion, left the team three weeks ago.

It wasn’t certain if the men’s team would be able to fill out the five-man requirement, but English writing sophomore Ben Sines, philosophy freshman David Gooch and English sophomore Nate Thacker were late fill-ins for the squad, allowing Loyola to compete as a team.

In his first race of the year, Sines finished first among Loyola’s male runners in the 8-km. race with his times of 30 minutes, 6.8 seconds. He was ninth overall in the conference and 36th in the region.

History freshman Sean Meleen (31:00.65) placed 13th in conference and 46th in the region. Mass communication senior Zach Custer (32:18.68) placed 20th and 57th. Political science sophomore Chris Tyree (33.15.51) placed 24th and 61st. Gooch (34:03.57) placed 28th and 70th. Thacker (36:17.63) placed 32nd and 77th.

As a team, they ranked No. 7 out of ten.

For the women’s 5-km. race, Rachel Leonard led with a time of 23:38.81 for 20th and 61st place. Psychology junior Rebecca Reed (24:56.25) placed 23rd and 67th while her twin sister Emily Reed, psychology junior, placed 24th and 68th with her time of 25:13.33 time. Biology freshman Kristen Francis (25:31.90) placed 25th and 70th. Visual graphics freshman Margot Bienvenu (26:32.03) placed 27th and 73rd.

“I am extremely proud of them,” head coach Al Seither said. “Some are doing their part for the athletic program. We have some kids who are not runners who wanted to run, who wanted to help the university field a team.”

SEITHER ‘DISAPPOINTED’ IN IMWALLE

Although Imwalle declined to comment, sources close to her felt that growing tensions between Imwalle and the athletic department prompted the schism.

Although there were many contributing factors to her leaving, the “straw that broke the camel’s back,” one source said, was when the athletic department suspended her from running in the Rhodes Invitational meet in Tennessee.

“She has always been good at telling us what to expect (in races),” Custer said. “We certainly benefited from her presence. It’s definitely a blow to the team.”

It was a blow that hurt an already reeling squad. The team lacks the star power that it had last year in Matt Cagigal, A’07, and Richard Bouckaert, A’07. With Imwalle gone, neither team had a runner that could seriously challenge for the conference championship.

To make matters worse, Loyola and Seither are having a tough time recruiting in the post-Katrina world.

“It’s getting difficult to field programs,” Seither said, citing conflicting schedules, Katrina backlash and a lack of scholarships.

Contact Info:Chad Bower can be reached at [email protected].