Contact: Matt Hebert

NCAA South Central Regional Meet Central

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Ragin’ Cajuns cross country/track head coach Lon Badeaux continues to mold his young men’s cross country squad here Friday afternoon as six representatives compete in the 2012 NCAA South Central Regional meet hosted by SEC-member and 10th-ranked University of Arkansas at Agri Park.
 
When the season began in early September, Badeaux took a group that featured five freshmen runners and watched them grow up real quick. Led by senior Zach France, the Cajuns picked up meet titles in the Ragin’ Cajuns Invitational and McNeese Cowboy Stampede and wrapped up the regular season with the program’s highest finish in the Sun Belt Championships since the 2004 title.
 
On Friday, Badeaux’s troops seek to further advance their progress as they build momentum for the three years that remain ahead of the group of talented freshmen.
 
“One of our yearly goals was to try to break into the Top 15 regional rankings and I feel like this young team has a chance,” Badeaux stated. “We will need to run well across the board to realize this opportunity.
 
“This meet also gives the young guys a chance to see where we want to be in the near future, so it should be a good learning experience.”
 
Making the trip up to Fayetteville with Badeaux is the elder statesman, France, and freshmen Scott Brewster, Trey Bonin, Corbett Ourso, Matthew Rice and Cole Stafford.
 
The Cajuns competed at Agri Park last month, taking part in the Chile Pepper Festival on Saturday, Oct. 13. That day, Stafford led the group as he traversed the 10K trek in a time of 32:32.0. The Cajuns finished 21st in the event with a team average time of 33:39.20, besting conference foe Arkansas State (26th – team average 34:24.82) and finishing right behind UALR (15th – team average 32:49.76).
 
UL is a mere two weeks removed from the program’s best finish at the Sun Belt Championships in nearly 10 years. Back on Oct. 27, Rice (Baton Rouge, La./Runnels HS) posted a 12th place finish with an 8K timing of 25:56.9 and Stafford ((Baton Rouge, La./Catholic-BR) whose time of 26:03.7 placed him 19th out of the 90 competitors, helped lead the Cajuns to a sixth place finish – the highest for Louisiana since claiming the conference championship in 2004.
 
For the third straight meet, either Rice or Stafford finished as UL’s top performer which bodes well for the program’s future. Both Rice and Stafford easily bested their season-best times in the 8K.
 
Like the Chile Pepper Festival, the Cajuns men have to traverse a 10K course during the NCAA South Central Regional. The Chile Pepper Festival was the lone 10K outing for UL in 2012.
 
The 10K times from the Chile Pepper Festival included: Stafford (32:32.0), France (33:22.3), Bonin (33:40.3), Brewster (34:20.0), Rice (34:21.4) and Ourso (34:48.4).
 
The NCAA South Central Regional meet gets underway at 12:15 p.m. (CST).
 
The regional meet serves as a gateway event to the 2012 NCAA Division I Championships, which will be contested Saturday, Nov. 17, at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky. The top two teams and top four individuals not on an advancing team receive an automatic berth into the national meet. Additional teams and individuals are chosen through an at-large selection process.    
 
The South Central region is comprised of teams from a three-state range—Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas—and consists of programs from eight different conferences in the Big 12, Conference USA, Great West, Southeastern Conference, Southland, Southwestern Athletic Conference, Sun Belt and Western Athletic Conference.
 
Along with host-Arkansas, the men’s top-15 rankings in the South Central region feature 10 teams that finished in the top three of their respective conference meets and four conference champions with Arkansas, McNeese State, UT-Arlington and Arkansas-Little Rock. Friday’s meet will also feature defending regional champion Texas and fellow conference mate Texas A&M.
 
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