Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Preview

Jenny Monaco and Raina Larsen will lead a fresh, new Saluki women’s cross country team in its season opener Saturday at the Saluki Invitational, while the men bring back Jeremy and Joseph Parks to lead the pack.

The men will compete against rival University of Kansas and Lindenwood College, an NAIA division school, while the women battle the University of Kansas, Mississippi State University and Lindenwood College. The meet will be west of Abe Martin Field.

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For the Saluki women, who won the invitational last season, this will be a good race for the freshmen to get a feel for college competition.

The race will be a good starting point to let everyone learn the course and get a feeling for the college race, Monaco said.

Coach Don DeNoon expects some of his young freshmen runners to be major factors in Saturday’s meet. He said freshmen Becky Cox, Marissa Jelks and Sharuun Downing will all play major roles in the outcome of the top-eight finishers from the women’s team.

We will be influenced by freshman performances, DeNoon said. Half of the top-eight finishers may be freshmen.

Many of the more experienced runners are looking forward to running with the freshmen this year to see how the team will mix together.

I think everyone is pretty well prepared, sophomore Leah Hofferkamp said. The freshmen are nervous about the first meet, and we are anxious to see how we will run with them.

DeNoon said Larsen and Monaco will lead the team, but he wants production from many other runners to step up and help the team.

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I have some kids who are looking pretty good, DeNoon said. If they race like they have been in practice, we should fare pretty well.

Just as the women’s team is preparing for the meet, the men’s team is aiming to bounce back from last year’s second-place finish at the invitational.

The men’s team will be led by the Parks twins and sophomore Andy Bosak.

SIUC coach Bill Cornell is familiar with running against arch rival Kansas. These two teams have been running against each other since the early 1960s when Cornell ran for SIUC.

It has always been a good rivalry and tough competition, Cornell said. It will be a good meet on Saturday.

Cornell expects the Parks brothers and Bosak to lead the team, but he is eager to see how freshman Chris Owen runs in his first meet of the season.

Owen has been looking real good in practice, and I am interested to see how he handles the meet, Cornell said.

Sophomores Eric Rushing and Matt McClelland will add depth to the team to start out the year.

We are really positive the meet will turn out well, McClelland said. We’ve been working pretty hard lately.

Joseph Parks said the Salukis are ready to move from practice to competition.

We’ve been training hard, and we’re getting pretty anxious about the season, he said. It’s not as fun just practicing, most of the guys are ready to start running against competition.

FACTOID:The men’s and women’s cross country teams open the season Saturday. The men’s race is at 9 a.m. against University of Kansas and Lindenwood College, and the women’s race starts at 9:45 a.m. against University of Kansas, Mississippi State University and Lindenwood College. The cross country course is located west of Abe Martin Field.