Cross-country advances to NCAA Midwest Regionals

Cross-country advances to NCAA Midwest Regionals

By Brent Meske

The cross-country team entered the Missouri Valley Conference championship as defending champions in the men’s and the women’s race. However, they were unable to repeat as champions.

The men’s team finished 2nd and the women’s team finished 3rd.

The men’s team tied for the lead in team points with Indiana State, but the tie-breaker favored the Sycamores. The top-5 finishers’ times were combined and Indiana State had a time of 2:03:20.03 which beat SIU’s 2:03:46.11.

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The men’s team entered the event looking to win its third straight MVC Championship. The team was led by senior Michael Castel, junior Oscar Medina and junior Juan Carrera who finished 6th, 7th and 8th respectively.

The trio consisted of the top 3 runners in every event this season.

Castel led the team throughout the race but fell more than 35 seconds behind junior John Mascari from Indiana State, the race winner.

The Salukis finished within two seconds of each other. Castel ran a 24:25.98, Medina and Carrera finished side-by-side with respective times of 24:27.64 and 24:27.73.

With their finishes, the three earned All-Conference honors. This is the third year in a row for Medina, Carrera’s second award and Castel’s first.

The women’s team was the same that won the MVC Championship last season, but finished 3rd this year.

Senior Krista Menghini, lead the team, finishing 10th, and won her first All-Conference honor.

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Seniors Kelley Gallagher and Kristen Levi also finished in the top-15.

Menghini with a time of 17:30.19, more than 20 seconds behind the race winner, junior Caitlin Busch from Bradley. Gallagher finished 12th, just behind Menghini, with a time of 17:35.69. Levi finished 15th, with her best 5k time of the year with a 17:41.61 finish.

Although both teams had strong finishes, coach David Beauchem was disappointed in the results.

“It’s tough to put the work in and come up short,” he said. “2nd and 3rd place are not what our expectations were. As a coach, I didn’t have them ready to go today.”

Both teams will participate in the NCAA Midwest Regional on Nov. 15 in Peoria.

Brent Meske can be at or on Twitter @brentmeskeDE.

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