SEMO North Cross Country meet preview

Poplar Bluff will host the SEMO North cross country meet Thursday at Ozark Ridge Golf Course.

I have a preview for the Mules team in today's DAR. Here are some important details:

SEMO North Conference Championships.

Distances: 3.1-miles, 5,000-meters; (Junior high races, 1.5 miles)

Race times: Junior high boys (3:30 p.m.); Junior high girls (2 minutes later); Varsity boys (4 p.m.); Varsity girls (4:30 p.m.); JV boys (5:00); JV girls (2 minutes later).

Awards: (following the last race) Medals to the top 10 runners in each division. Ceremony will be located on the back side of the club house.

You can get directions to Ozark Ridge Golf Course here. Parking is limited, so fans should car pool.

Poplar Bluff coach Beth Lewis said the course will be much like the race that was here in 2003. The winning times from that year were 16:43.3 (boys) and 18:56.23 (girls). Rain, however, may flood part of the course and force a few changes.

The race starts on the No.1 fairway and runs between the 9th and 18th greens with rolling hills to start. The course never repeats or loops and there are challenging hills just after the 1-mile mark and about a quarter-mile later. The run up to the second-mile mark is also up hill. The course features a mixture of terrain, said Lewis, adding, "You are not sitting on any type of surface or terrain for too long. It's constantly changing." \

The finish line is on the No. 1 fairway with a slight incline.

The Notre Dame boys are the three-time defending champs while the Cape Central girls have won each of the last 10 conference titles.

Wynn McClellan of Notre Dame won the race last year with a time of 16:01 at Notre Dame. Poplar Bluff's Travis Blalock was second, 10.46 seconds back. Both are in the field Thursday, along with Scott City's Brandon Shemonia, who finished second at the Potosi meet Saturday. Notre Dame beat Cape Central, 50-58, at the Notre Dame Invitational earlier this season as McClellan beat Shemonia by 28 seconds.

Jackson, which won the girls title at Potosi on Saturday, and Cape Central, which finished third a meet in Illinois, will battle for the girls title. It should be the tightest team race since 2006 when the Lady Tigers won by four points.

I'll post times and a story Thursday night.