Cross-country team members Jacqueline Lintzenich, left, and Julia Mangler, right, run Friday Sept. 3 during the unscored 4K Saluki Early Bird meet against Rend Lake College and Missouri. The men and women’s teams competed in the Walt Crawford meet Friday in Charleston. – Brooke Grace | Daily Egyptian

While the SIU women’s cross-country team prevailed without their top runner, the men think some minor improvements are in order if they want to achieve similar results.

The women won while the men took third place Friday at Eastern Illinois University’s Walt Crawford Open in Charleston. Freshmen runners Kelsey Gallagher, Lacey Gibson and Sarah McIntosh held the fifth, sixth and seventh spots while Kristen Levi, who won for SIU at the first meet against University of Missouri and Rend Lake College, was unable to compete due to a foot injury.

“Every week it’s just a different person stepping up to lead the way for us,” head coach Matt Sparks said. “That was the neat thing about the women’s team, we took our No. 1 runner out and we were still able to . . . win the meet.”

Sparks said several athletes on the women’s team have the ability to head the pack.

“This was our first team-scored event of the year and it’s always nice to start the year with a win,” he said. “The two most consistent people in the first couple weeks for the women have been Kelley Gallagher and Lacey Gibson.”

Sparks said team depth has allowed runners to find comfort in the event of an injury because others are able to fill in if needed.

“One thing as a coach we always look at is your one-to-five gap: How much time is between your first runner and your fifth runner,” Sparks said. “That gap is under a minute from our first runner to our eighth runner.”

The men’s team walked away with a third place finish out of eleven other squads.

“Team-wise, I thought we didn’t do very well at all,” sophomore runner Brian Dixon said. “I think we should have won that meet as a team, if everybody ran what they were capable of.”

Dixon came in first for SIU and second overall, finishing just more than a second after an Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis runner.

He said he was happy with his time, despite losing the lead in the final leg of the race, as he set his personal best for an 8K race. Dixon said he’s excited to see how much lower he can push his time during the course of the season.

Sparks said he wanted the team to feel pressure and see how the runners react in tense moments. While some shined, he said others had their share of struggles.

“We would have liked to see Cole Allison and Brad Wrage run a lot better, they struggled but (I’m) excited to see Brian Dixon come out and run the way he did.” Sparks said. “He’s setting himself up as one of the top five to ten guys in our conference right now.”

Sparks said the first two competitions developed a clearer picture of who will fill certain roles on the men’s squad. He said there are, however, other questions that may not be answered until the team’s next meet, which will be the Saluki Invitational on Sept. 24. Both upperclass and underclass runners will participate in the event.

“Now the next question to clear up in my mind is how fit and competitive are the guys that actually haven’t raced,” Sparks said, “They seem to be training well but how well can they translate that into racing?”

Dixon said, despite the rank to finish in second  in the conference the team is confident it finish the season as the top team.

“We’re ranked to get second in conference, but I think everyone keeps proving that we can give Indiana State a run for their money,” he said.