Men’s and Women’s CC Preview

The SIUC men’s cross country team is in search of redemption at the NCAA Midwest Regional Cross Country Championships in Ames, Iowa, Saturday, after a disappointing sixth-place finish in the Nov. 1 Missouri Valley Conference Championships.

The Saluki women hope to make the trip a learning experience for a young SIUC squad after an eighth-place showing at the MVC Championships.

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The meet features 31 teams and is set up so the top two teams qualify for the NCAA Championships Nov. 24 in Greenville, S.C. Four additional teams also will be selected by the NCAA, and the top three individual runners not on a qualifying team advance to the NCAA meet.

Men’s coach Bill Cornell said his team is wanting to avenge its conference performance by defeating its conference foes.

Our goal is to try to beat some of the teams that beat us, Cornell said. We feel we are a better team than we showed at conference.

Cornell said the team should prepare to run in the cold weather because the weather forecast has predicted temperatures at the freezing point with 2 to 3 inches of snow in Ames Saturday.

They better adapt to the cold weather, Cornell said. It’s supposed to snow, but you know how the weather can change. They’re used to running in the cold, though, so I think they’ll adjust OK.

Saluki runner Joseph Parks is coming off a disappointing conference meet where he finished in 51st place out of 78 runners with a time of 26 minutes and 31.4 seconds.

Parks was one of the pre-race favorites in the meet, but he hopes to redeem himself in the regional meet and attempt to qualify for the NCAA meet.

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Cornell said Parks is back to his old form, so Cornell expects a good race from the junior team leader.

If Joe has a good one, there’s a possibility he could make it to the NCAA’s, Cornell said.

Parks said he is trying not to focus on expectations as the meet draws near.

I’m going to approach it like any other race, Parks said. I’m not going to worry about the conference meet, even though it’s in the back of my mind. I am just going to go out and try to run a good race.

The women’s team is coming off a disappointing eighth-place finish at the conference meet and is working on gaining experience to its youthful squad.

Women’s coach Don DeNoon said he wants the team to improve on its conference finish and give some of his young runners a feel for the regional meet.

We would like to place ahead of some of the MVC schools who beat us in the conference meet, DeNoon stated in a press release. This will also give our young team a taste of what it takes to participate successfully in a regional.

The women’s team, who debated the idea of not going to the regional meet, decided to take the trip to gain experience in big meets.

The University of Nebraska, ranked 17th in the nation, is the front-runner in the meet, while the University of Missouri and the University of Minnesota are expected to challenge for the title.

Saluki runner Raina Larsen said the team wanted the experience of running in the regional meet.

A lot of runners wanted to go to experience it, Larsen said. The consensus with the team was to go and compete.

We just want to go and enjoy ourselves. We want to run well and have a good time.

The men’s and women’s cross country teams will be in action Saturday at the 1997 NCAA Midwest Region Cross Country Championship in Ames, Iowa. The men’s race begins at 10:30 a.m., followed by the women’s race at noon.