ESPN+ Broadcast
Women's Live Results
Men's Live Results
  
THIBODAUX - The McNeese Cowboy cross country team will look to defend its Southland Conference championship on Friday while the Cowgirls will aim for an improved finish as the two compete at the 2022 SLC Championships at the Nicholls Farm.
 
The women will run a 6k race beginning at 8:30 while the men will follow at 9:30 with an 8k race and will broadcast live on ESPN+
 
The Cowboys will enter the race as the second-highest league team in the USTFCCCA South Central Region poll at No. 9, trailing UIW who is seventh. New Orleans is right behind the Cowboys at No. 10 while Lamar is 14^th.
 
League teams only competed in one 6k event this fall, most at the Texas A&M Arturo Barrios event two weeks ago.
 
Using that meet as a guide for conference individual rankings in a 6k race, McNeese has three runners ranked in the top 10 – Gilbert Kimutai (5^th), Evans Kemboi (7^th), and Jacob Kipkogei (8^th). The Cowboys are the only team with three runners ranked in the top 10 and has a total of four in the top 20 (Omer El-Fadl, 19^th).
 
Kipkogei placed 13^th at last year's league championships while El-Fadl placed 16^th, Elias Loriposia was 20^th and James Hyland 38^th.
 
On the women's side, the Cowgirls return just one of the three runners that finished in the top 10 at last year's meet, that being Pamela Kosgei who finished seventh. Kosgei also placed 25^th at the 2020 ('21 spring) conference championships and will enter Friday's meet ranked third among the Cowgirl runners in a 6k this season.
 
Sorcha Moloney has been the top Cowgirl runner all season and will go into Friday's championship race ranked 15^th in the league among teams that have been clocked in a 6k this season. Moloney placed 17^th at last year's conference meet.
 
Ciara Gilroy has the second-fastest time in a 6k for the Cowgirls this season and is ranked 22^nd. She has improved her conference finishes tremendously since her first meet in 2019 where she placed 62^nd. She finished 52^nd in 2020 ('21 spring) and was 32^nd last year.
 
New Orleans is favored to win the women's title with its No. 8 regional ranking while Lamar is ranked 14^th and UIW is 15^th.
 
"We're definitely looking forward to Friday," said head coach Brendon Gilroy, the 2021 Men's Cross Country Coach of the Year. "I believe we are right where we need to be as a team. Even though the men are the defending champs, they have flown under the radar all season. We had to replace three of the top five from last year and those have been coming along nicely. Some of our men ran an 8k for the first time at Texas A&M two weeks ago.
 
The ladies form is a lot better than their last race out. The plan is to be confident and put themselves in the race to have a shot."