AU ROUNDUP: Men third, women seventh at SEC Championship

OXFORD, Miss. — The Auburn men earned a trio of top-five finishes while Holly Knight paced the women with a sixth-place finish at the 2009 SEC Championship meet Saturday morning at Ole Miss.

Senior All-American Felix Kiboiywo was Auburn’s top finisher on the day, as he took third with a time of 24:37.08 in the 8K race. Fellow senior Jean-Pierre Weerts turned in the best performance of his SEC career with a fourth-place finish behind Kiboiywo, clocking a time of 24:41. Ben Cheruiyot rounded out the top-five finishers for the Tigers with a time of 24:52.44.

Auburn’s other finishers on the men’s side were Scott Novack who placed 16th with a time of 25:20.38. Jeff Sanders took 61st with a time of 27:28.01. Charles Mitchell was the Tigers’ final finisher with a time of 29:01.54.

Barnabas Kirui of Ole Miss was the race champion after finishing with a time of 24:24.75. He was followed by Arkansas’ Dorian Ulrey, who clocked a 24:33.30. Alabama was the overall team champion with 56 points, while Arkansas placed second with 61, 25 ahead of the third-place Tigers.

With the Tigers placing three runners in the top-10, Auburn tied Arkansas, who also placed three runners in the top-10 (Dorian Ulrey, second, Lane Boyer, eighth and Solomon Haile, ninth. On the women’s side, Knight paced the Tigers once again with a sixth-place, 21:26.58 finish in the 6K race. She was followed by Stephanie Barnes who finished nearly eight-second behinds Knight with a time of 21:34.30.

Senior Laurel Pritchard placed 29th in the final SEC race of her career with a time of 22:33.91. She was followed by junior Cathryn Albright who placed 47th with a time of 23:11.64 and Grace Pritchard who came in 69th (23:54.97).

Auburn’s final scorer was junior Allison Smith who placed 73rd after registering a 24:03.87.

Florida had the top two finishers in the race as Rebecca Lowe and Charlotte Browning placed first and second for the Gators, propelling them to a team championship. Tennessee placed second with 80 points, narrowly edging out Arkansas, who had 87 points. Georgia came in fourth with 118 points, followed by Alabama (141 points) and Vanderbilt (142 points).

The team will next be in action as the Tigers head to the NCAA South Regional hosted by the University of Alabama on Nov. 14, facing many of the same opponents that were present at Saturday’s SEC Championship meet.

Volleyball heads to LSU today
The Auburn volleyball team continues its road swing, heading to Baton Rouge, La., for a match against No. 20 LSU today.

The match is set for 1 p.m. and will be broadcast by Cox Sports Television.

“We took LSU to five last year and we’re expecting another good match in Baton Rouge,” head coach Wade Benson said. “LSU is a solid team and we’re excited to compete.”

Auburn attackers enter the weekend as the fourth-best hitting squad in the Southeastern Conference and are hitting .242 as a team with 1071 kills on 2738 attacks.

Alyssa Davis continues to be among the conference’s leaders in hitting, averaging a .327 attack percentage (122 kills, 32 errors, 275 attempts). Freshman Sarah Bullock has a team-best 209 total kills and is averaging 2.19 kills per set. Junior Morgan Johns is second with 186 kills and sophomore Kelly Fidero is in a close third with 184 kills. Freshman Katherine Culwell is fourth with 177 kills.

LSU enters the weekend ranked No. 20 in the country and stands at 17-5 overall and 11-2 in the SEC.

Brittnee Cooper and Marina Skender lead the Tiger squad offensively. Cooper leads the SEC with a .365 attack percentage with 256 kills on 513 attempts. Skender has a team-high 263 total kills and averages 3.42 kills per set.

Cooper also leads the conference in blocks, having 106 total blocks on the season and averaging 1.38 blocks per set. Setter Sam Dabbs is second in the conference with a 10.95 assists per set average.

In this week’s RPI, Auburn is currently ranked No. 65 in the country. After finishing the 2008 campaign at No. 232, the Tigers jumped 163 spots and were ranked No. 69 in the 2009 initial NCAA Division I Volleyball RPI poll.

The Tigers continue the SEC season on the road, traveling to South Carolina on Friday for a 6 p.m. match. Auburn then faces Florida at 12:30 p.m., on Nov. 8.