Columbia, Mo. ? The Kansas University men’s and women’s cross country squads finished eighth and sixth at the Big 12 Conference Championships on Saturday at A.L. Gustin Golf Course.

Senior Laura Lavoie paced the women’s squad with an eighth-place finish, covering the 6-kilometer course in 21:05.10. Sophomore Megan Manthe (21:40.70, 19th place), junior Paige Higgins (21:48.52, 25th place) and freshman Angela Pichardo (22:21.08, 41st place) each recorded personal best 6k times. The women finished with 147 points.

“I think the women’s race was a total team effort,” KU coach Stanley Redwine said. “Person for person we did an excellent job today and that’s the direction that the program is going.”

The KU men scored 208 points and were led by senior Mark Menefee, who finished at 24:44:38 on the 8-kilometer course. Freshman Cameron Schwehr placed 31st (24:59.09), sophomore Chris Jones 43rd (25:19.30), Dan Ferguson 60th (25:46.13), and Brian Raggett 64th (25:55.53).

Kansas will compete at the NCAA Midwest Regional on Nov. 16 in Normal, Ill.

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Wildcats triumph: Baker University put five runners in the top 10 to win the women’s Heart of America Conference cross country meet Saturday at William Jewell in Liberty, Mo.

Baker won with 31 points. Mid America Nazarene University was a distant second with 65 points.

Jenny Schultz (second), Blair Spencer (fourth), Morgan Ouimette (sixth), Molly Humphries (ninth) and Jessica Barrand (10th) led the Wildcats.

Matt Hallauer placed 10th to pace the BU men’s team, which was sixth in the team race.