SIUC’s cross-country teams finished strong at the Missouri Valley Conference Championship meet Oct. 29 in Tulsa, Okla.

The men won the conference for the second consecutive year, and the women placed fourth out of 11 teams.

Junior Stelios Marneros also won the individual title for the second year in a row, but the team ran well enough to win without Marneros’ first place finish.

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We still would have won if Stelios had fallen in a hole and not finished, SIUC coach Bill Cornell said. We would have won with Neil Lisk’s score(who finished 19th).

The Salukis placed five runners in the top 11, and four of those were named All-Conference.

Freshmen Jeremy Parks and Andrew Fooks and senior Mark Russell won All-Conference honors, while Marneros won MVC Male Athlete of the Year as well as the Conference title and All-Conference honors.

Even Cornell grabbed himself part of the awards barrage. He was named the MVC cross-country coach of the year.

Cornell said he especially proud of his freshman corps of Jeremy and Joseph Parks and Andrew Fooks.

They ran well all year, but the fact that they were able to maintain that is unbelievable, he said. That say something about the future of the team.

The Dawgs set records for the best scoring with 30 points and for the biggest margin of victory ever at the MVC championship. Northern Iowa came in at second place with 63 pointsmore than double the score of SIUC.

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Cornell said this is one of the best teams he has ever had since his return to SIUC in 1982 from Murray State.

I had an outstanding team when I first got here. I brought Chris Bunyon with me from Murray State who was a two-time All-American, he said. This team has to be at least that good, not to mention it has three freshmen on it.

The men move onto the District V Champioship on Nov. 11 in Stillwater, Okla. In the district, they are currently ranked third behind Oklahoma State and Iowa State, but hope to qualify for the National meet.

In order to stay focused for the race, the team decided after the MVC meet in Tulsa, it would not shave until the district race.

Nobody is shaving until after the district meet, Cornell said with a scuffy growth above his lip. Having something like that will remind us to stay focused for the race.

The team is also fighting for Top-25 recognition. The Salukis received three points for the Top-25, and Cornell said those points probably came from John Coughlan of Illinois State.

He’s on the voting board, has seen us run, and believes in us, he said.

If the team does qualify for the nationals, Cornell said the team has a good chance to grab a spot in the Top-25.

Last year, Kansas was picked as one of the four at large spots, and ended up ranked 16th, he said. If we’re picked, I can’t see why we won’t do the same.

The SIUC women’s squad placed fourth in the MVC meet right where coach Don DeNoon expected.

The women finished in a tight pack and ran well, but were outrun by more mature and experienced runners, according to DeNoon.

We wanted to finish no worse than fourth, DeNoon said. That was our goal.

While the women’s performance is overshadowed by the men’s, DeNoon was quick to point out that the team improved greatly over the season.

The youngsters ran well, he said. We saw improvement from Raina Larsen and Sharlene Downing.

DeNoon said he told his team to stick together during the race, and the runners did that in the first half of the race.

The goal was to get out and compete, he said. Everyone (all the teams) was there (together) and they did that. When the break came at the two mile point we got broken up a little.

The women did end up placing closely together.

Junior Kim Koerner placed 12th, sophomore Raina Larsen placed 16th, freshman Sharlene Downing finished 22nd, sophomore Kelly French finished 28th, and freshman Colleen Bouck finished 33rd out of 82 runners.

Others finishing for the Salukis were:Sophomore Leah Steele (62nd), junior Hallema Ivory (63rd), and freshman Allison Fleming (66th).

DeNoon said Koerner, who is considered one of the top runners in the conference, was disappointed in her 12th place finish.

I have to think she was disappointed in her performance, he said. She knew she had a chance to win it, and she put pressure on herself to do that.

The next step for the women is also the District V Championships.

The Salukis’ women’s team is ranked last in the district, but are working hard for the race.

We’re putting effort into it, DeNoon said. The runners are training on their own right now.