A fourth place finish at the Auburn Invitational Saturday may have been enough to give the Saluki men’s cross country team recognition among voters for the Top-25 teams.

Before the Dawgs departed for Auburn, Ala., the team was ranked third in the NCAA’s District 5, and Saluki men’s coach Bill Cornell said he hoped to gain some respect by running well against some big competition.

On Sept. 2, SIUC defeated 23rd ranked Kansas soundly, and did not gain any respect for the victory. SIUC is ranked above Kansas, who is fourth in NCAA District 5. Last week, Cornell sent a copy of the results for the Kansas meet to 25 coaches who vote on the Top 25.

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We beat Kansas pretty handily, so how can they rank Kansas and not us, Cornell said. That’s why I sent the Kansas/SIU results to the coaches.

The only liability the team has are loses to 22nd ranked Illinois and 11th ranked Arizona, who both defeated the Salukis in Champaign Sept. 16., but SIUC placed only nine points behind 14th ranked Alabama who finished third at Auburn.

SIUC thought it had defeated Alabama during the race, but an error by the officials corrected that just before the team got on the bus to leave the meet.

We had a bubble burst, Cornell said. I thought we had beat Alabama and placed third, but their coach caught me just before we were leaving and told me they (the officials) forgot to score their second runner. We had to look at the videotape and we ended up nine points behind them.

The harriers placed fourth out of a field of 27 teams, and junior Stelios Marneros paced the team with a fourth place finish out of 234 runners. Other top finishers for SIUC were:freshman Andrew Fooks (28th), senior Mark Russell (37th), freshman Jeremy Parks (41st), freshman Joseph Parks (53rd), senior Neil Lisk (77nd), and senior Josh Daly (129th).

Jeremy Parks said he believes the Salukis deserve some Top 25 recognition due to their performances at Auburn and against Kansas.

We deserve it. We were only nine behind Alabama, and we killed Kansas, he said. We should at least get some points. All the teams there that weren’t ranked at least had some votes.

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Cornell said he was pleased with SIUC’s performance, and the runners had done everything he asked. He had asked his team to get out of the start quickly and pace off of Marneros.

It was a good meet for us, he said. Our guys found out what it’s like to get out. Russell and Stelios got out front off the start, and the rest got stuck in the middle. They had 27 teams in too small of an area, and we were right in the middle in box 10. They realized that if you don’t get out, you’re in trouble.

Six of the eight SIUC runners ran their fastest times of the year, and Cornell said this shows the team’s progress.

We’re happy with what they did, but especially happy because they know they can do better, he said. I’m very happy with the way the team is progressing. We’re doing the right kind of training to get the most out of the team, and we’re not going to rest this week at all.