Cross Country At Missouri Valley Championships On Saturday
10/30/2002 | 12:00:00 | Cross Country
Oct. 30, 2002
CARBONDALE, Ill. - The Southern Illinois University men's and women's cross country teams will look to finish out their respective seasons in strong fashion Saturday at the Missouri Valley Championships at Indiana State University.
The event will kick off with the women's 5K race at 10:30 a.m., followed by the men's 8K race at 11:30 a.m.
The Saluki women enter the meet picked to finish fifth in a pre-meet poll, while the men are tabbed to finish seventh. Southwest Missouri State is the unanimous favorite to win the women's race, while Illinois State has been picked to edge Drake for the men's title.
The Salukis have a handfull of contenders for all-conference honors, and perhaps individual championships.
Senior Katie Meehan has the top 5K time in the Valley this year (17:55) and junior Noa Beitler is ranked ninth (18:18) despite competing in just two meets this year. Beitler placed 12th the last season's MVC's, while Meehan was 18th.
Junior Doron Giat comes into the Valley Championships ranked 8th on the 8K best-list at 25:14. Giat has the potential to repeat his all-conference performance from last season, when he placed fourth.
The men will need a season-best performance from Marion native Eli Baker, and strong showings from Ryan Hauser, Scott Mahon, Ryan Hauser, Tony LaChiana and Steve Murray to surprise the field.
Seniors Jodi Huddlestun and Erin Simone will be counted on to help the Saluki women reach the top-five.
"Everyone is relatively healthy and excited about the conference meet,'' said Saluki women's head coach Matt Sparks. "We have had several strong practices in the last couple of weeks giving the team a tremendous amount of confidence going into the championship."
Each team will be on familiar turf, as the Saluki men competed at the ISU Pre-National meet two weekends ago, and the women ran at the Indiana State Invitational earlier in the year.
Meet results will be available on Indiana State's web site, http://web.indstate.edu/athletic/, directly following the meet. A meet recap will be posted on www.siusalukis.com Saturday evening.
Players Mentioned
