For some reason, twins always seem to attract attention, but in the case of a set of twim brothers on the Saluki cross-country team, the attention is well deserved.

Jeremy and Joseph Parks, freshmen from Eldorado, started their season off with a bang, helping SIUC defeat both Kansas and Southern Indiana Saturday.

The twins said they experienced pre-race jitters before the meet against Kansas and Southern Indiana.

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Yeah, we were a little bit nervous before the meet, Joseph said.

Jeremy said running against a team like Kansas for their first meet, and running in an upcoming meet against Illinois and Arizona on Sept. 16, is tough on them, but beating an opponent from those schools gives them a lot of confidence.

It’s a lot more competition than high school, Jeremy said. It’s pretty exciting running against Kansas, who was ranked 16th in the national finals last year, and Arizona was ranked fourth last year. I always think about who’s running next to me, and beating a guy from Arizona is important. It gives us confidence.

In their first collegiate meet, the twins impressed Saluki coach Bill Cornell by placing high and running a low time.

To run under 20 minutes in their first meet was excellent, he said.

Cornell said the twins have fulfilled the expectations he had of them before the season began.

They’ve fulfilled them more so than I ever expected, he said. We thought all along they would be better at the longer distances, and that’s proven true. They’re eager to do anything I ask, and they believe in themselves. It didn’t seem to bother them last week (to run against a school such as Kansas in their first collegiate meet). The twins have received an abundance of media attention already this season according to Cornell, but the twins said this is nothing new.

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It keeps people from home and here updated about us, Jeremy said. It doesn’t bother us, we enjoy it.

We’re used to it, Joseph said. It’s always been like this through high school.

The twins said Cornell has been a big help to them, and has given them some direction to train in.

We finally have a coach who knows what he’s doing, Jeremy said. In high school the coach always asked us what we wanted to do.

Joseph said time management was the toughest part about the transition from high school to college.

Coach (Cornell) has a more demanding schedule than high school, he said.

We’re getting used to it, Jeremy said. We’re getting settled in now, but it’ll be tougher when we get more homework and bigger assignments.

The twins have a tendency to run along with one another, whether it is in a race or during practice.

It’s not something we do on purpose, Jeremy said. It just works out that way.

Cornell said having the twins on the team along with Andrew Fooks, a freshman from England who ran well Saturday, puts pressure on Stelios Marneros, the team’s number one runner, to excel.

I think it puts pressure on him (Marneros) to run better, and keep them off his back, he said.