When the SIUC men’s indoor track season opened in Normal on Friday, the Salukis were unable to catch the competition, as the Salukis lost the Illinois State Triangular meet.

Illinois State was the big winner at home with 83 points. Indiana State fell right behind with 61.5 points, leaving the Salukis, who had an undermanned squad, with only 26.5 points.

Men’s track coach Bill Cornell said the triangular meet does not mean much this early in the season.

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He said this meet is somewhat of a trial to see how the men will perform later in the season.

It’s a good way to find out where the team is at, Cornell said.

Although SIUC placed third on Friday, Cornell said the team’s biggest competition during the season usually comes from Northern Iowa, ISU and Indiana State.

The Salukis won the Missouri Valley Conference championships last year during the indoor season and Cornell is not shaken by the team’s finish on Friday.

We didn’t do well at this meet last year, but we ended up winning the MVC championships, Cornell said.

We usually never do well in this opener, as we do not take a full squad and we don’t have the luxury of training our distance people for this early of a meet, Cornell said. Since we went to nationals in cross country, some of those athletes were certainly not in top form for this kind of meet.

Not all of the Salukis news was bad, as distance runner and MVC cross country champion Stelios Marneros ran away with the 3,000 meter run presenting a time of 8:47.40.

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SIUC also dominated the high jump event when Neophytus Kalegerou and All-American Cameron Wright both cleared 7 feet and one quarter inches. Kalegerou claimed first place because Wright had more misses previously in the event.

Orlando Mckee won the long jump with a stretch of 22 feet and 11.75 inches.

I’m not concerned at all by this showing, Cornell said. We know that by the time the main portion of the season comes around, this will be a solid track and field team.