Men's Cross Country Seeks Upset At MVC Championships
10/30/2003 | 12:00:00 | Cross Country
Oct. 30, 2003
By Josh Magill
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE, Ill. - Experience can take a team a long way to winning, the rest must come from within. At this weekend's Missouri Valley Conference Cross Country Championships, the men's cross country team hopes to show it belongs near the top.
"These guys are out to run like they know they can," head coach Matt McClelland said. "Everybody is going to come out ready. They're not happy with where they were picked, but that's just part of the game I guess. They want to prove themselves right, not everybody else wrong."
SIU, picked to finish fourth in the pre-championship coaches poll, looks to add to a legacy of cross country championships over the years. SIU is tied with this year's host school, Drake, for most conference wins at nine. The Salukis won four consecutive titles between 1980-83, and grabbed their last conference wins in 1994 and 1995.
The Salukis, who finished last year's meet in seventh place, have been led by sophomore Joe Byrne and junior Eli Baker all season, but McClelland says that his No. five and six runners will have to step up in order to win a championship.
"We're going to have to run like a team. The top three guys have to pull the others along with them," McClelland said. "The other guys in the back need to stay with the guys in the front and just go for it. (The race) is going to be over in 25 minutes, so you might as well hurt the most you can and stay up toward the front."
"If we stay together and run like a team, that is what is going to help us win championships. We're matched with the top two teams all the way down to our No. five man. It could all come down to that No. five man," McClelland adds.
The MVC Championship men's race is scheduled to begin at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday. It will be held at the Otter Creek Golf Course in Ankeny, Iowa. All results can be found on SIU's official athletic web site at www.SIUSalukis.com, or the host school's web site at www.drakebulldogs.org.
