Southern Illinoise University Athletics
Baker Credits Team For Pushing Him To New Heights
09/27/2003 | 12:00:00 | Cross Country
Sept. 27, 2003
By Seth Whitehead
www.SIUSalukis.com
CARBONDALE - There's a common belief that cross country is not a team sport.
Southern Illinois University junior Eli Baker begs to differ.
Case-in-point: Baker's explanation of how he's bettered his personal-best 8K time by 40 seconds this season.
Has it been better training? Nope.
"Training is almost the exact same," Baker said.
Baker still gets up at 5:30 a.m. - every day - and runs a total of 11 miles.
"Looking back at what we did last year, it's almost identical probably. Nothing new."
The difference?
According to Baker, it's the guys he's training with - a talented and determined group of runners that have pushed him to new heights.
"Anytime you come into a season and you've got a team that you know can do really well, the atmosphere and morale is higher," Baker said. "You always compete better that way."
In short, Baker's improvement - and subsequently, his team's improvement - has been a collective effort.
Call it synergy: The sum of SIU's individual parts has been stronger than the individuals themselves.
SIU has competed in two meets thus far, finishing first at Bradley and an impressive second at the Alabama Invitational.
It's the best start the Salukis have had in recent memory - and Baker has been a big reason for the early success.
Baker opened the season in style, recording a career-best time 8K time of 24:49.80 and finishing second out of 350 runners at Bradley. Northern Iowa's Velibor Radojevic was the only runner that finished ahead of him.
Baker followed up that performance with an eighth-place finish at Alabama, an equally impressive showing considering the big-name schools in the race, including Mississippi State, Louisiana Tech, Mississippi and the host team.
But Baker has had some maroon-clad company in the front of the pack.
Teammate Joe Byrne pushed him at Bradley, finishing in third-place, just seven seconds behind Baker.
And in turn, Baker pushed Byrne at Alabama, as the sophomore finished just in front of Baker in sixth-place.
Byrne is one of six newcomers that have given SIU a spark. Baker is one of SIU's three solid holdovers.
Though it's too early to know just how good this group can be, they are certainly better than expected. The Salukis were picked to finish sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference.
They are now cautiously thinking about an MVC championship.
It's also clear that they are better than the two previous teams Baker was a part of, which has motivated him.
"The last two years we've known we had somewhat of a chance to do okay," Baker said. "But we didn't have any real high expectations. And when you do that, you know, you're setting yourself up for failure right off the bat.
"This year we haven't done that. We've got the guys. We've got a good team. We know we can do it."
Byrne and freshman Diarmuid Grant have quickly established themselves in SIU's top-five, joining Baker, senior standout Doron Giat and junior Tony LaChiana.
Kyle Monroe, Brandon Lukes, Thomas Gentry and Hunter Sheldon - all freshman - have given SIU more depth than they've had in recent years.
"From this point last year to where we are right now, it's a total change," SIU head coach Matt McClelland said.
Baker has always been a very solid runner, dating back to his freshman year at Marion High School. But throughout his prep career - in which he was a South Seven Conference champion and an all-stater - Baker got more and more serious about the sport.
That got him a scholarship at SIU, and he quickly established himself as SIU's No. 2 runner during his first two years in Carbondale.
But he only started reaching his vast potential late in last year's outdoor track season.
"He is starting to show signs," McClelland said. "But he is by no way close to where he can actually go. He only started showing signs last April. He started really running pretty good times for us. And from that time, he hasn't stopped.
"And a lot of that is on his shoulders too. When you are excited about the sport and things are starting to fall your way, then automatically things start coming around and you start running better. So I think that's what it is right now. He's excited about it."
Baker's excitement has rubbed off on his teammates.
"When you've got one guy excited about it," McClelland added. "I think that leaks down to the rest of the guys on the team."
Making his recent success even sweeter is the fact that Baker is doing it just a few miles from his hometown.
Baker's ties to the area are strong; he coaches the Marion Swamp Fox Track Club during the summer and had the same high school coach as SIU men's track and field head coach Cameron Wright.
"I love being around this area and having friends and family and people that I know come around," Baker said. "In that aspect, it can show other kids that it's possible to come around and be successful in your back yard."
And considering Baker's team-oriented explanation for this year's success, it's no surprise that he wants to coach after his college running days are over.
"Definitely," Baker said. "I'm going in to be a physical education teacher and I want to coach. That's a big goal of mine. I want to share my knowledge of the sport.
Although he's only 20, experience should not be a problem.
"In high school I was given the opportunity to be an assistant coach for Swamp Fox, then last year I was head coach," Baker said. "It was something that I really wanted to do and was great experience at this young of an age to go and be head coach of a track team."
Academics aren't a problem either. Despite a training and traveling schedule that takes away a lot of free time, Baker carries a 3.43 cumulative grade point average.
He was recently named the MVC's Scholar Athlete of the Week.
"That was definitely something I didn't expect," Baker said. "I'm and A-B student, and I just do what I can there. Nothing spectacular. But it's nice to be recognized for more than just your athletics."
The key for SIU and Baker now is keeping this momentum going. The Salukis will host the Saluki Invitational on homecoming weekend (Oct. 11) and have big things in mind for the rest of the season.
"These guys have it all on their shoulders," McClelland said. "They can have anything they want. "They are running like champions now, and if that's the way it falls at the end of the year, that's great."
