ABILENE, Texas - The lead cart veered off the slated course Saturday morning at the Lone Star Conference Championship at Sherrod Residential Park.

The cart cut a shorter course which conceivably impacted the individual order of finish, but fortunately it didn't short circuit 17th-ranked Midwestern State's push for its third consecutive championship.

The Mustangs placed three runners in the Top 10 and had five of the first 16 runners to cross the finish line to amass 46 points to easily outdistance second-place Angelo State, which finished with 79 points.

"It's what we wanted, but it's a lot different than we anticipated," MSU coach Koby Styles said. "The lead cart went out the wrong way and cut the whole course off a mile short. That did not play in our favor because the way our training is, we definitely excel at a longer distance."

The Mustangs were in position to make their signature late push in the scheduled 6-kilometer race which was inadvertently shortened to 4.5 kilometers.

"It did catch me off guard," MSU junior Brissia Montalvo said. "I thought it felt like we were finishing early so we might as well finish it. (Abilene Christian's Anais Belledant) was in front of me, so I tried to get as close as I could to her."

Belledant appeared quick to notice her good fortune as the runner representing the host school kicked her sprint going into the 100-meter finish area to clock a 16:07.74 to finish 12 seconds ahead of Montalvo, who finished second at 16:19.77.

Defending LSC individual champion Sydnee Cole was clearly miffed as she crossed the finish line sixth with a time of 16:40.82.

"I thought they were going to take us around the loop again," the MSU senior said. "I was not ready to finish because obviously we had over a mile left to run. I'm a runner that comes on a lot over the last mile and I was waiting to come up on the hills (on the right) to start making a move."

Instead the cart swung left to spoil her carefully mapped out strategy and dashed the senior's chances of fairly defending her individual title.

"I think if we would have gone the whole way, I would have been up there further because there were three girls right in front of me," Cole said.

Instead, Montalvo and Cole settled for All-LSC laurels for finishing in the top 10 joining teammate and LSC Freshman of the Year Ashley Flores, who finished ninth with a time of 16:52.49.

Fellow freshmen Janel Campbell and Cara Mack finished 13th and 16th with times of 17:04.35 and 17:12.35 respectively to close out the MSU's counters.

"Our freshmen are great," Cole said. "They've worked so hard. We knew Ashley would come in and do a lot because she was just amazing in high school. Janel and Cara came out of the blue. We couldn't be the team we are without our freshmen and I couldn't be more proud of them."

Junior Lindsey Pate (17:28.38) finished 21st, senior Bailey Dulaney (18:26.15) closed 53rd and sophomore Melody Caldwell (18:32.39) paced 57th to account for the rest of MSU's individual spacers and finishers.

The Mustangs have now won three consecutive conference titles in four seasons under Styles, who took over the reins of the program in 2007.

"Because of everything that happened, we didn't know if we had it or not," Montalvo said. "I'm shocked because this is my first conference championship and it feels pretty good."

Cole showed different emotions, but was mainly relieved.

"I'm really happy for our team," she said. "If we wouldn't have won because of their mess up, I would have felt bad for the freshmen who wanted it really bad. They wanted rings, we all wanted rings. We got up and worked hard. I'm glad it worked in our favor."

The Mustangs can qualify for its second NCAA Division II national appearance by finishing in the top three at the South Central Region championship meet on Nov. 20 in Warrensburg, Mo.

"We're happy with the team result," Styles said. "I think we probably would have moved up a couple of spots if it had gone the right way, but we came here for one reason and that was to win the team title."

Notables

* The Mustangs improved to 93-1 on the season with five meet wins including the MSU Mustang Cross Country Stampede, Oklahoma State Cowboy Jamboree, Midwestern State Cross Country Carnival, ECU Tiger Chase and LSC Championship.
* NCAA Division I Tulsa is the lone team to defeat the Mustangs this season. MSU finished runner-up to the Golden Hurricane at the Missouri Southern Stampede.
* MSU's Ashley Flores became the second runner in program history to gain LSC Freshman of the Year status joining teammate Lindsey Pate, who claimed the honor in 2008.