Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Recap 17

The SIUC men’s and women’s cross country teams found that a case of pre-race jitters and a field of strong competition were more than they could handle Saturday at the Missouri Valley Conference Championships in Springfield, Mo.

The Saluki men, led by Matt McClelland, finished sixth, while the women fell to an eighth-place finish.

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The Saluki men were expected to finish fourth after a second-place effort in 1996. The women’s team was picked to finish seventh after a 1996 fourth-place finish.

Men’s coach Bill Cornell said his team wants to put the meet behind it and look ahead to the District V meet Nov. 15 in Ames, Iowa.

Obviously, we’re very disappointed, Cornell said. It’s just one of those things we can’t explain.

McClelland finished in 18th place with a time of 25 minutes and 5.6 seconds.

Saluki runner Joseph Parks, who was one of the pre-race favorites to win the MVC title, finished sixth for the team and 51st overall out of 78 runners with a time of 26:31.4.

Cornell attributes race-time jitters to Joseph Parks’ disappointing race.

He wanted it so bad, but he was too nervous and blew up before the race even started, Cornell said.

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Cornell said Parks’ finish rubbed off on the rest of the team.

I think it had a little bit of an effect on the runners when they saw him not running well, Cornell said.

Jeremy Parks said having the team’s top runner in the back of the race affected the team’s race mentality.

Seeing him (Joseph Parks) struggle made the guys think, If he’s hurting that bad, I must be hurting twice as much,’ Jeremy Parks said.

Following McClelland was Jeremy Parks in 26th place (25:19.7), Eric Rushing in 35th place (25:51.9) and Andy Bosak in 36th place (25:52.2). Paul Fitzpatrick rounded out the Salukis top finishers in 37th place (25:52.5).

The University of Northern Iowa won the men’s MVC Championship, followed by Illinois State University, Drake University, Indiana State University, Southwest Missouri State University and SIUC.

The Saluki women, led by Jenny Monaco’s 13th-place finish out of 78 runners, could also feel the difficulty of a tough conference outing.

Runner Becky Cox said the meet provided some stiff competition.

We were ranked seventh going in, so we only let one team beat us that shouldn’t have, Cox said. I thought it was a really tough meet because the MVC is a strong conference.

Saluki coach Don DeNoon would have liked to have some better overall finishes, but said he saw some positive aspects in the race.

I don’t think the meet was a disappointment, DeNoon said. Gayla Harrington ran her best time of the year (19:10), and there was some good individual races, but we would certainly have liked to have better times.

Monaco’s 13th-place finish (18:31) was followed by Raina Larsen in 28th place (19:01), Harrington in 34th place, Cox in 47th place (19:40) and Erin Leahy in 53rd place (20:01).

Wichita State University won the meet with 59 points, followed by Indiana State with 76 points and Bradley with 88 points. SIUC finished with 171 points.

DeNoon said the team is still considering if it will compete in the District V meet in Nov. 15 in Ames, Iowa.

Since we weren’t able to compete in the Missouri Valley, it will be hard to be competitive at the district meet, DeNoon said. It might be better to start getting ready for the track season (Dec. 6).

The men’s and women’s cross country teams are scheduled to compete next in the District V meet Nov. 15 in Ames, Iowa.