MEMPHIS - Missing its number two runner, Austin Peay State University women's cross country team struggled to a 23rd-place finish at the Brooks Memphis Twilight Cross Country Classic hosted by Christian Brothers at Mike Rose Stadium.

The Lady Govs finished with 614 points to finish 23rd in the 32-team field and fifth out of the five Ohio Valley Conference teams in the field. Stephen F. Austin won the women's event with 60 points.

Freshman Xiamar Richards led the Lady Govs, finishing 81st in the 256-woman field with a time 19:34.48. Freshman Kendra Kirksey was a close 86th with a time of 19:38.84.

However, without junior Janelle Avery, who missed Saturday's competition, the Lady Govs gap back to the rest of the team was more obvious than usual. Freshman Miranda Weed led the rest of the team, finishing 132nd with a time of 20:32.75. She was followed by junior Alyssa Molnar (186th, 22:05.19), freshman Kayla Satterly (219th, 23:27.06), freshman Meghan Barbarotto (228th, 23:59.41) and freshman Shannon Christian (235th, 24:26.57).

"Xiamar had a personal best today, but she is capable of more," said Austin Peay cross country head coach Doug Molnar. "Janelle missing today's event really hurt us. With her out there the gap between our top three and the rest of the team would have been much smaller. Without her and relative to the other teams today we hurt ourselves. I am disappointed with the performance we had as a team today even though there were some decent individual efforts."

Austin Peay returns to action at the Greater Louisville Classic, next Saturday.

- AP -