Both Saluki cross-country teams proved why Saturday’s meet was called the Martin Foods/ Saluki Invitational. SIUC invited teams from all over the midsection of the nation to do one thing- defeat them.

The men ran well, placing first out of 11 schools, and the women ran to a second place finish out of 12 teams.

Junior Kim Koerner gave her parents the best Parent’s Weekend gift she could by winning her first collegiate meet, blowing the competition away. Koerner finished 21 seconds ahead of her closest competitor, and ran 45 seconds faster than her personal best time.

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Koerner’s parents were on hand to witness the victory, and said it was good to see her run so strongly.

We make it to only about half the meets, but we always make it when she’s at home, Mike Koerner said. It sure was nice to see her win on Parent’s Weekend. She’s been injured for a couple years, so it’s good to see her healthy.

Koerner, who was on the verge of tears after jumping into her father’s arms, said her parents are always there for her.

They’re always at home supporting me, and I always tell them what I think I can do, she said. I finally showed them. I really wanted to win today because I’ve never won a collegiate meet.

Women’s coach Don DeNoon said Koerner has been running well lately, and the recent cut in the training program may have helped.

We’ve seen some great runs from her in practice, and I definitely think the change helped. Kim was really fresh, and once she gained confidence, that was all she needed, he said.

Although DeNoon eliminated the team’s morning runs, he plans to bring back the two-a-day practices.

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I thought we performed better this week (after cutting the miles logged by his team), he said. We’ll stay one more week like this, then we’ll double up again, and then we’ll ease up for the conference meet.

Junior Stelios Marneros, who ran his fastest time at home (24:20.7), led the men to a first place finish, but was outrun by a freshman from Meridian College.

Julious Wanjiru, a 19-year-old freshman from Kenya, ran almost a minute faster than Marneros, with a time of 23:29.6, and impressed the entire crowd.

He was just awesome, SIUC men’s coach Bill Cornell said. He beat the course record of 24:04 set in 84 by two-time All-American Chris Bunyan.

Cornell was impressed by his team’s performance ,as well, and said the performance of the Dawgs on Saturday could move the team up in the Missouri Valley Conference rankings.

I’m happy, considering we didn’t ease off (the training), he said. I think they ran very relaxed, and that’s pretty good because we had a tight pack. That should move us up in the MVC rankings.

The tight pack Cornell referred to was his runners finishing all within 2:17 of each other.

Although Cornell was impressed with his team’s performance, there are a few things the team will work on this week.

Mark Russell didn’t get out like we wanted him to, and Joe Parks was a little demoralized because he couldn’t run with his brother (Jeremy), he said. It’s just in his (Joe’s) head, and we can get over that.