Feature on Jenny Monaco 12

Monaco has led the Salukis from the first meet in Carbondale Sept. 6, where they finished in second place out of four teams. Monaco anchored SIUC with her second-place finish out of 33 runners with a time of 18 minutes and 37.4 seconds.

She led the team to another second-place finish out of 13 teams at the Sept. 12 Bradley Invitational, where she finished fifth out of 139 runners with a time of 18:30. At the Commodore Classic Sept. 20 in Nashville, Tenn., Monaco led the team to a fourth-place finish out of 22 teams and finished 11th out of more than 200 runners with a time of 19:06.

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Monaco, a sophomore in Spanish from Palatine, wants the team to finish in the top three in the Missouri Valley Conference and wants to achieve her goal of an All-Conference finish.

We want to finish better than fourth this year because the past couple years we have finished fourth in conference, Monaco said. Individually, I’d like to make All-Conference this year.

Saluki coach Don DeNoon said Monaco has a shot at making the NCAA national meet and becoming a conference champion before she graduates.

Leah Steele, a junior in psychology from Beach Park, said Monaco leads the team by example and pushes the team harder in practice.

The freshmen look up to (Jenny) and watch how hard she runs, Steele said. She pushes us other runners to see how close we come to staying with her.

Monaco said working as an educator are in her plans after graduation.

I would really like to become a high school Spanish teacher and coach cross country and track after I graduate, Monaco said.

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A few factors led Monaco in the decision to come to SIUC.

I really liked the campus, I like the outdoors, and I thought it was kind of neat here, Monaco said. I also liked Don (DeNoon). He really wanted me to come to the school as opposed to other coaches who seemed like they really didn’t care too much.

Monaco said that since she began running, her reasons for doing so have changed.

I started running to keep in shape, she said, but I started to run for competition and haven’t stopped.

Monaco and the Salukis will be in action Saturday at the Saluki Invitational. The meet will be west of Abe Martin Field at 10 a.m.