Saturday, October 14
Louisville, KY
TBA
Southern Illinois University
at
Pre-Nationals
Salukis head to Louisville for Pre-Nationals
10/12/2017 | 11:14:00 | Cross Country
The Southern Illinois cross country teams travel to Tom Sawyer State Park in Louisville, Ky. Saturday for NCAA Pre-Nationals, hosted by the University of Louisville.
It marks Southern's first appearance at NCAA Pre-Nationals since 2014, when SIU's men took 28th in the seeded race, while Southern's women, led by a 13th place finish by Kelley Gallagher, were the runner-ups of the unseeded race. Senior Jonathan Vara is the only current Saluki who was on that 2014 team, as he ran 27:26.7 to finish 62nd in the open race.
The Salukis had a week off of competition following the Joe Piane Invitational, hosted by Notre Dame, that saw redshirt junior Josh Maier finish ninth in the gold race while redshirt sophomore Megan Krolak took 19th in the women's gold race.Â
Second-year head coach Kevin Cataldo thought the week off served his teams well, especially since Pre-Nationals is the final regular season meet for the Salukis before the 2017 MVC Championships, hosted by Missouri State on Oct. 28.
"We got some good, solid training in," Cataldo said of the week off from competition. "(Pre-Nationals) is the last of the grind as we will begin to pull back as we approach the start of championship season."
The Saluki men are finally healthy, with redshirt junior Josh Maier set to lead the Salukis on Saturday. Maier missed SIU's season opening race at Tennessee Tech on Sept. 2 with lingering injuries but has since been SIU's top-finisher at both of the meets he has run at this season.Â
Maier will be joined by Vara and junior Cain Hassim as upperclassmen who will be expected to set the pace early for the Salukis. Sophomore Chris Edwards as well as freshmen Jacob DeWitt, Michael Church and Theo Hassim round out Southern's top-seven heading into Louisville.
DeWitt, Church and Hassim will get an additional opportunity to run an 8K, as Saturday's meet will mark the third time the Salukis have raced an 8K in competition this season. Hassim and Church, however, will be running an 8K in competition for the second time this season, as Church missed the season opener and Hassim did not run at the Joe Piane Invitational on Sept. 29.
"I want to challenge the men to run to their ability level," Cataldo said. "I'm looking for them to stay together and move through the field as a pack."
Running as a pack becomes especially key during championship season, as teammates are able to feed off of each others energy as well as fend off challengers by clogging up passing lanes and making it difficult for the opposition to maneuver.Â
"I can't stress enough to the men that they need to consistently run as a pack," Cataldo said. "Late in the race, if you're with your teammates, you feed off of each other's energy. You see it in workouts where we are feeding off each other's energy constantly. To make the decision to stay up with the team when the race gets tough will help them to feed off each other a little bit longer and do a little bit more."
The Saluki women will run in the unseeded 6K race and will once again be led by Krolak, who has been Southern's top-finisher at all three meets this season. She will be accompanied by seniors Claire Darnell and Kelly O'Shea as well as junior Hillary Merrill, sophomore Sasha Lanning and freshman Sydney Spranger.
"On the women's side, I want to see our competitiveness," Cataldo said. "I think it showed in a lot of areas at Notre Dame, but I think there's still some things we can work on to close the gap in our spread."
At Notre Dame on Sept. 29, six Salukis notched season-best 5K times. Krolak cut 25 seconds off of her previous season-best, while Darnell trimmed nearly 30 seconds off her season-best 5K time. Lanning had the biggest improvement in terms of time dropped, as she cut more than 40 seconds off her season-best 5K time. O'Shea nearly equaled Lanning's performance as her 5K time of 18:43.1 was just under 40 seconds better than her previous-best 5K time, while Spranger trimmed 37 seconds off her previous-best time in just her third meet as a Saluki.
"The women have been working really well together this season," Cataldo said.
Saturday's meet begins with the men's seeded 8K race at 10 a.m. followed by the women's seeded 6K race at 10:45 a.m. Southern's men will compete in the men's unseeded 8K race beginning at 11:30 a.m., while SIU's women will run in the unseeded 6K race at 12:15 p.m. The race will be streamed live on Flotrack.
It marks Southern's first appearance at NCAA Pre-Nationals since 2014, when SIU's men took 28th in the seeded race, while Southern's women, led by a 13th place finish by Kelley Gallagher, were the runner-ups of the unseeded race. Senior Jonathan Vara is the only current Saluki who was on that 2014 team, as he ran 27:26.7 to finish 62nd in the open race.
The Salukis had a week off of competition following the Joe Piane Invitational, hosted by Notre Dame, that saw redshirt junior Josh Maier finish ninth in the gold race while redshirt sophomore Megan Krolak took 19th in the women's gold race.Â
Second-year head coach Kevin Cataldo thought the week off served his teams well, especially since Pre-Nationals is the final regular season meet for the Salukis before the 2017 MVC Championships, hosted by Missouri State on Oct. 28.
"We got some good, solid training in," Cataldo said of the week off from competition. "(Pre-Nationals) is the last of the grind as we will begin to pull back as we approach the start of championship season."
The Saluki men are finally healthy, with redshirt junior Josh Maier set to lead the Salukis on Saturday. Maier missed SIU's season opening race at Tennessee Tech on Sept. 2 with lingering injuries but has since been SIU's top-finisher at both of the meets he has run at this season.Â
Maier will be joined by Vara and junior Cain Hassim as upperclassmen who will be expected to set the pace early for the Salukis. Sophomore Chris Edwards as well as freshmen Jacob DeWitt, Michael Church and Theo Hassim round out Southern's top-seven heading into Louisville.
DeWitt, Church and Hassim will get an additional opportunity to run an 8K, as Saturday's meet will mark the third time the Salukis have raced an 8K in competition this season. Hassim and Church, however, will be running an 8K in competition for the second time this season, as Church missed the season opener and Hassim did not run at the Joe Piane Invitational on Sept. 29.
"I want to challenge the men to run to their ability level," Cataldo said. "I'm looking for them to stay together and move through the field as a pack."
Running as a pack becomes especially key during championship season, as teammates are able to feed off of each others energy as well as fend off challengers by clogging up passing lanes and making it difficult for the opposition to maneuver.Â
"I can't stress enough to the men that they need to consistently run as a pack," Cataldo said. "Late in the race, if you're with your teammates, you feed off of each other's energy. You see it in workouts where we are feeding off each other's energy constantly. To make the decision to stay up with the team when the race gets tough will help them to feed off each other a little bit longer and do a little bit more."
The Saluki women will run in the unseeded 6K race and will once again be led by Krolak, who has been Southern's top-finisher at all three meets this season. She will be accompanied by seniors Claire Darnell and Kelly O'Shea as well as junior Hillary Merrill, sophomore Sasha Lanning and freshman Sydney Spranger.
"On the women's side, I want to see our competitiveness," Cataldo said. "I think it showed in a lot of areas at Notre Dame, but I think there's still some things we can work on to close the gap in our spread."
At Notre Dame on Sept. 29, six Salukis notched season-best 5K times. Krolak cut 25 seconds off of her previous season-best, while Darnell trimmed nearly 30 seconds off her season-best 5K time. Lanning had the biggest improvement in terms of time dropped, as she cut more than 40 seconds off her season-best 5K time. O'Shea nearly equaled Lanning's performance as her 5K time of 18:43.1 was just under 40 seconds better than her previous-best 5K time, while Spranger trimmed 37 seconds off her previous-best time in just her third meet as a Saluki.
"The women have been working really well together this season," Cataldo said.
Saturday's meet begins with the men's seeded 8K race at 10 a.m. followed by the women's seeded 6K race at 10:45 a.m. Southern's men will compete in the men's unseeded 8K race beginning at 11:30 a.m., while SIU's women will run in the unseeded 6K race at 12:15 p.m. The race will be streamed live on Flotrack.
Players Mentioned
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
/ Cross Country
Saluki Radio Football Broadcast - at SEMO
Sunday, September 21
9.19.25 | Saluki Radio Preview - at SEMO
Friday, September 19
9.18.25 | Drew Steffe with Rodney Watson
Thursday, September 18
9.17.25 | Saluki Radio Football Podcast - SEMO
Wednesday, September 17