Women’s cross country kicks it up a notch

By Gus Bode

Salukis head to Panther Open

The biggest question for the SIU women’s cross country team going into today’s meet in Charleston is not whether it will perform well; that is practically a given.

The only thing up in the air as the Salukis prepare for the Panther Open is whether they will win the meet.

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After placing third in its first meet with a team comprised solely of freshmen, the SIU squad will head to the Eastern Illinois University campus with a full squad of 12 athletes, including top runner Noa Beitler, looking to prove it is capable of taking first place.

Head coach Matt Sparks considers this weekend as the real beginning of the regular season for the Salukis. He saw their time trial last month and their third-place finish at the Missouri Cross Country Challenge Sept. 6 as more of a warm-up for the bigger meets of the season.

“We’ve got everybody together; this is our first real week of more intense training,” Sparks said. “The competition at the Missouri meet was probably stiffer than what we’re gonna see at this meet. As a result of that, I’d like to see us contend for the team title and contend for an individual title.

“Who our top runner will be, you could probably flip a coin between five different girls.”

One runner now in the mix is Beitler, who needed extra time to get back into shape for cross country after advancing all the way to the national track meet last summer.

Beitler is expected to compete for the title and pace the Salukis. She hopes to meet the expectations that have been placed upon her, but she is still unsure of just how well she will perform after her layoff.

“The first meet, you never really know where you are at, so I’m hoping I’m not going to let down anyone,” Beitler said. “I’m starting to feel much better in workouts, so that’s a good thing.

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“But I really don’t know what I can do. I can come and run really well, and I can come and kinda suck.”

Even if Beitler does struggle today, the Salukis have enough young depth to remain competitive. Sarah Rinker will likely pace a strong group of freshmen who finished within 30 seconds of one another two weeks ago at Missouri.

Rinker finished 13th in SIU’s first meet, just ahead of teammates Lindsay Wagner (14th) and Brittani Christensen (15th). The Salukis’ ability to run well in a pack will be an advantage throughout the season, and their times are likely to improve today at Panther Trail, which Sparks considers a relatively faster course.

“We had people cheering for us because they were surprised. They weren’t expecting to see us up there,” Christensen said, referring to the Missouri meet. “We’re more excited now for the season because we think we have a really good team.

“[Running in a pack is] so helpful. Some of us didn’t even have people to train with in high school, and now we have people to train with and race with. In races, you have so many more people to work off of. You run more as a team now than individually in high school.”

The meet, which is stocked with several teams from smaller colleges and universities, will feature four Division I squads – host Eastern Illinois, Western Illinois University, SIU and fellow Missouri Valley Conference member Bradley University.

The Salukis have already defeated Bradley once this season – by 55 points at Missouri – and neither Eastern nor Western present dominant opposition.

The SIU women also have another team that will push them to run better – the SIU men.

The Saluki men took first place last weekend in Peoria. So now the women’s team feels some pressure to come out on top this weekend in a battle of friendly one-upmanship.

Reporter Todd Merchant can be reached at

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