Sikeston's Ham, Lincoln have banner day in conference meet

Friday, October 18, 2002
Sikeston's Dale Ham, left, and Clay Lincoln were both All-Conference runners in Thursday's cross country meet in Notre Dame

CAPE GIRARDEAU - The Sikeston cross country team took fourth in the SEMO Conference meet with 107 points on Thursday at Cape Girardeau Notre Dame High School.

Cape Central won the conference meet with 40 points. Finishing in second was Poplar Bluff with 53 points and taking third was Jackson with 80 points.

Sikeston finished ahead of Notre Dame and Kelly, who finished in fifth and sixth respectively with 125 points and 131 points.

"I was pleased we were able to beat two teams in this conference," said Sikeston head coach Gary Williams. "This was the first time all season we beat Notre Dame. Kelly also beat us earlier in the year. Not a bad finish for a team that hasn't fielded a full team in over 10 years. I was also pleased that our top four runners all ran their personal best times today."

Sikeston's Dale Ham finished in second place behind defending champion Ross MacDonald of Poplar Bluff. Both runners broke the Notre Dame course record.

Ham ran the 3.1-mile course in a time of 16:57.

"Dale has been a medal winner in every varsity race this year and now has a second place medal in conference to add to his impressive collection of medals," said Sikeston head coach Gary Williams.

Sikeston freshman Clay Lincoln took third in the meet with a time of 17:11. Lincoln's efforts puts him in a class by himself among Sikeston freshmen cross country runners.

"No freshman has ever run a faster 5,000 meters for Sikeston than Clay ran today," said Williams. "In addition, his third place finish is the highest by any freshman in school history."

Other runners that finished for Sikeston were Jonathan Wiley (30th- 18:47), Quinton Lamb (35th- 20:03), Kevin Fredrickson (37th- 23:14) and Brandon Sines (23:31).

In the girls junior varsity, Kathryn Eilders made a three-minute improvement on her personal best time. She finished in 22nd place.

The team will not have another meet until the district meet on Nov. 2.

"This will give us time to recover and prepare for the most important meet of the year," said Williams. "Both Dale and Clay have excellent shots at making it to state this year."

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