The Saluki cross country team brought some personal records and MVC honors back to Carbondale after competing in this afternoon’s MVC Cross Country Championship.

Junior Jacob DeWitt notched a season-best time of 26:19.57 in the eight kilometer run. This run earned DeWitt a 34th place finish out of the 67 runners in the event.

On the women’s side, senior Megan Krolak was SIU’s highest finisher in the five-kilometer run as she earned 14th place in the event after running a time of 18:47.32. 

Advertisement

After her race, the senior was voted onto the MVC All-Conference Honorable Mention Team.

The next runners in for the women were Olivia Murphy with a 21st place finish,  Madison Decker coming in at 44 and Fallon Russell who was right behind her in 45th.

“Our top three women were competitive,” said Rosalind Joseph, SIU’s director of track and field and cross country. “Megan Krolak finished in the top-15, Olivia Murphy came back from her injury to be our number two and Madison Decker – what can I say? She came to us in the middle of last season as a senior, running for fun on her own, and ended up being our number three. There’s a good young group behind them, so I’m looking forward to everyone continuing to grow from this experience.”

Senior Cain Hassim was the highest finisher for the men in the 8k as he ended in the 26th after clocking a time of 26:03.73. 

Following Hassim, sophomore Reid Parsons was the next Saluki across the finish line as he finished in the 31st position. 

The next finishers for Southern, excluding DeWitt, were Michael Church, who finished in 38th, Chris Edwards, who finished 46th, JT Hodges, who finished 52nd and Canoy Tyree, who came in the 59th position. 

“I thought the men ran really gutsy today,” Joseph said. “Jacob DeWitt, Michael Church and Chris Edwards had great races; the best I’ve seen them run all year. The conditions were messy, but that’s a part of the sport. Everyone has to deal with it, and I think our men did a good job running together.”

Advertisement*

Both the men’s and women’s teams placed seventh in their overall team scores with the men tallying 170 points and the women tallying 168 points.

The cross country team will continue to compete in the upcoming track and field season that is set to kick off in early December with the Saluki Fast Start on Dec. 7.

Sports reporter Tamar Mosby can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @mosbytamar.

To stay up to date with all your southern Illinois news, follow the Daily Egyptian on Facebook and Twitter.

Advertisement