SIU men’s and women’s cross country team returned to Peoria for the Midwest Regional championship this weekend.

A total of 35 schools ran in the event for a chance to qualify for an opportunity to run in the NCAA Championships in Madison, Wisconsin.

Southern was up against four teams that claimed their conference titles including Bradley (MVC), Iowa State (Big 12), Tulsa (American), and South Dakota State (Summit League).

The women’s team also faced stiff competition against four conference championship teams as well in Bradley(MVC), Iowa State (Big 12), South Dakota (Summit League), and Wichita State (American).

Senior Josh Maier was looking to repeat as all-Region from last year with a top 25 finish after he set his personal best 8K record at 23:57:18 on this course at the MVC championship.

Junior Megan Krolak was looking to build off her personal best 5K time of 18:04:49 on this course for the women’s side.

SIU men’s team looked to build off of it’s 23rd place finish from last year.

The men’s team improved from last year 22nd out of 31 while the women placed 30th out of 35 teams.

The top finisher for the men was Maier who clocked a 10K time of 32:04:08 which resulted in 45th place finish for the senior.

The Saluki women were led by sophomore Olivia Murphy who placed 110th with a time of 22:14:06 in the 6K as she ran in her first regional.

None of the runners were eligible to advance due to the fact that 38 individual runners were selected to advance to nationals being the top four runners from the non-qualified teams in each regional.

This regional marked the end of the season for the Dawgs.

Sports reporter Adam Warfel can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @warfel_adam.

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