In their seventh visit to the Notre Dame Invitational, the Saluki women placed 16th out of 25 teams while the men placed 15th out of 20 teams.

In their third meet of the season, the SIU cross country team competed in the 62nd annual Joe Piane Notre Dame Invitational.

The event was held at the Burke Golf Course and consisted of 25 women’s teams and 20 men’s teams. The event held six different races, the men and women’s varsity blue, the men and women’s open, and the men and women’s gold. The Salukis competed only in the gold races.

In the women’s 5k gold run, Southern placed 16th with a score of 429 on a combined time of 1:34:23. Northern Iowa took the 5k gold with a final score of 86 on a combined time of 1:28:44, with five runners placing in the top 30. Notre Dame placed 13th in the 5k blue with a score of 309 on a combined time of 1:27:30.

In the men’s five-mile gold, the Saluki men placed 15th with a final score of 348 on a combined time of 2:12:16, just five points – or seven seconds – short of 14th place Marshall University. Temple took the event with a final score of 76 on a combined time of 2:05:49. Notre Dame placed 17th in the 5k blue with a final score of 433 on a combined time of 2:05:31.

SIU brought six women runners to the meet. Redshirt sophomore Megan Krolak continued to lead the team, placing 19th out of out of 204 runners with a season best time of 17:48.6. A strong showing to go along with her first place finish at the Golden Eagle Invitational and her 31st place finish at the Commodore Classic.

Southern brought six men as well to the meet, but it was redshirt junior Josh Maier who shined, taking ninth place out of 162 runners with a time of 24:56.2. Maier has found success before at the Notre Dame Invitational, placing sixth at the 2016 invitational recording back-to-back top-ten finishes at the event.

The Saluki cross country team will compete next in its fourth meet of the season at the Pre-Nationals held by University of Louisville. Times for the meet are TBA, but will be held on Oct. 14 in Louisville, Kentucky.

Sports reporter Dillon Gilliland can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @DillonGilliland.

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