DELAND, Fla. - The Kennesaw State women’s cross country team had three runners finish in the top ten, as the Owls finished second in the Atlantic Sun Cross Country Championship on Saturday, which was hosted by Stetson at the Sperling Sports Complex in DeLand, Fla.

The Owls were led, as they have been all season, by junior Mackenzie Howe, who finished second to defending champion Brittany Thune of Belmont with a time of 17:31 in the 5k event. Thune, a senior, checked in at 17:17 to take home the individual title and end her career with four top ten finishes in the A-Sun Championship in four tries.

Jacksonville had five runners finish in the top-12 to seal their first conference crown in the team’s history and snap Belmont’s streak of three consecutive titles.

Howe, who came into Saturday undefeated in six races in 2009, was disappointed that she didn’t finish first, but appreciated Thune’s performance and was more focused on how the team performed as a whole.

“Winning this race would’ve been nice, but I really wanted us to win the title as a team,” said Howe, who garnered All-Atlantic Sun honors for the third straight season. “I have to hand it Brittany. She ran a great race and she’s a really talented runner. I ran as hard as I could, and so I have no regrets from that standpoint.”

Senior Erin Sutton was the second runner to come in for the Owls, clocking in at 18:09 to finish in sixth place. The Dallas, Ga. native had only run in one other 5k race this season due to injury, so given the circumstances, she was pleased with the result.

“I really gave it all I had today, having not been able to train as hard as I would like to really gave me an extra incentive to leave it all out on the course today. Overall, I felt pretty good, and am encouraged by how I ran,” said Sutton, who will finish her cross country career with four All-Atlantic Sun Team honors. “Of course, the big thing today was making sure that we performed well as a team, and I wish we could have won, but we all gave it our best shot.”

The third runner to come in for Kennesaw State was senior Britany Reilly, who set a personal record in a 5k event with her time of 18:13, good enough for eighth place overall. Reilly expressed how important it was for teammates to work together while they were out on the course.

“When I started out, I was a little boxed in towards one side of the course, and when I saw Erin up ahead of me, I decided to run to where she was to open things up for me a little bit,” she said. “Having Erin get off to such a great start helped me to overcome the slightly slower start that I had, which made the race easier for me.”

The course, which was set-up by hosting Stetson, typified a Florida course in many ways, in that it was very sandy and at a lot of points very flat.

At the end, it was a matter of Jacksonville getting five runners across very close to one another.

“We were thrilled to have Mackenzie, Erin, and Britany give us the performances they gave us today,” assistant Paul Wakeman said. “You have to take your hat off to Jacksonville, they found a way to get strong finishes all the way around, from one to five.”

The Owls will compete in the NCAA South Regional in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on November 14, their first NCAA Division I post-season competition in program history.

2009 ATLANTIC SUN WOMEN'S CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIP

1. Jacksonville 43 pts

2. Kennesaw State 80 pts

3. North Florida 84 pts

4. USC-Upstate 114 pts

5. Belmont 124 pts

6. Lipscomb 129 pts

7. Florida Gulf Coast 167 pts

8. Campbell 187 pts

9. Mercer 251 pts

10. East Tennessee State 288 pts

11. Stetson 306 pts

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

2. Mackenzie Howe 17:31

6. Erin Sutton 18:09

8. Brtiany Reilly 18:13

31. Kristen Gibson 19:10

33. Caitlin German 19:13

45. Soibhan Wolcott 19:45

52. Lorena Jaime 20:02

62. Katie Charles 20:38

All-Atlantic Sun Conference First Team: Mackenzie Howe, Erin Sutton

All-Atlantic Sun Conference Second Team: Britany Reilly