MVC Championship meet next for SIU Cross Country

Saturday, October 27

Peoria, Ill.

Southern Illinois University

MVC Championships

10/25/2018 | 9:56:00 | Cross Country

Women's Race (ESPN3)Men's Race (ESPN3)

Both races will again be streamed on ESPN3.

By: Will Becque, SIUSalukis.com

The Southern Illinois cross country teams will race at the 2018 Missouri Valley Conference Championships this Saturday, Oct. 27, in Peoria, Ill. The Saluki women will compete in the five-kilometer race at 10:30 a.m., followed by SIU's men running in the eight-kilometer race at 11:30 a.m. Both races will be broadcast live on The Valley on ESPN3 for the second-straight season.

The weather forecast for Saturday's race is calling for a slight chance of rain in the morning hours and a high of 55 degrees with a low around 40. Third-year head coach Kevin Cataldo doesn't see the weather being a factor with a race of this magnitude.

"We still will have the same mission, regardless of the weather," Cataldo said. "Time goes out the window at this race and it is all about where we place. We've had a lot of athletes post lifetime-bests in unideal conditions. That is why we took them to run in adverse conditions like in Nashville it was hot and humid. Wisconsin was a loaded field of national class and the Bradley Classic was wet and sloppy. We've tried to throw everything at our student-athletes to better prepare them for this meet."

Saturday's MVC Championship meet will be run on the same course as the Bradley Classic, the Newman Golf Course, which features a mostly flat 2K loop. The Salukis were one of seven MVC teams to run at the Bradley Classic in the hopes of gaining insights about how the course runs.

"If its not muddy, it runs fast," Cataldo said of the course. "It's a quick course that you know how much further you have to run with the clocks that adorn the course."

This marks the fifth time that Bradley has hosted the MVC Cross Country Championships, and the first time since 2009. That year, the Saluki men were edged out by just one point by Indiana State for the MVC title. The Sycamores and the Salukis each placed all five runners in the top-11, as Jeff Schirmer and Mohamed Mohamed finished 2-3 but Indiana State's Scott Krapf took home the individual title to help secure the MVC team title for the Sycamores.

The Saluki women also finished second when Bradley previously hosted the conference meet, though it during the Gateway Conference era. Southern scored 94 points in 1989 to finish second to Illinois State.

The Saluki men were picked to finish in a tie for seventh in the MVC's annual pre-championship poll. The Bradley Braves were picked to win their fourth-straight Valley crown, as the Braves are looking to become the first MVC team to win four-consecutive titles since the Salukis did so from 1980 to 1983. Southern's women were also picked to finish seventh, while Bradley was chosen to sweep both the men's and women's team titles.

Competing for the Saluki men this weekend will be Josh Maier, Theo Hassim, Cain Hassim, Jacob Bryan, Michael Church, Jacob DeWitt and Reid Parsons.

Maier comes into this weekend with the second-fastest 8K time in the Valley this season. His time of 24:19.3 won the men's open race at the Nuttycombe Invitational and it is less than a second off of the best time in the Valley this season, 24:18.7, set by Illinois State's Kyle Mattes. Mattes also had the top time entering last season's championship race and went on to take third, one spot ahead of Maier.

The Alsip, Ill. native will try to become the 13th Saluki male to tally three-straight All-MVC finishes, and the first since Oscar Medina did so from 2012-15. The redshirt senior will also try to become the 12th Saluki to win a MVC individual title, and the first to do so since Dan Dunbar in 2010.

"On the men's side, there are going to be very few points that separate second place from seventh place," Cataldo said. "It's going to be a dog fight. That's why two teams were tied for seventh and two teams were tied for fifth in the pre-championship poll."

Competing for the Saluki women at the MVC Championships will be Megan Krolak, Olivia Murphy, Sydney Matusik, Maddy Hurt, Kayla Schiera and Grace McDurmon.

Krolak has the 10th-fastest 6K time in the Valley at 21:51.4, set at the Bradley Classic on Nov. 12. Her 5K split from that race would have ranked her in the top-10 for fastest 5K times in the Valley, as the Salukis haven't ran a 5K since the Commodore Classic on Sept. 15. Krolak is one of two Saluki women to have run at the MVC meet previously, and the only one who ran at last year's meet.

"It's going to be more of a learning experience for the women as we are young," Cataldo said. "Workouts have been going really well and I'm looking to see how many women we can get in the top-20. We have three runners that have a good chance to do it."

Southern hasn't had three women finish in the top-20 at the conference meet since 2014, when Krista Menghini, Kelley Gallagher and Kristen Levi all placed in the top-15.

Saturday's meet begins with the women's 5K at 10:30 a.m., followed by the men's 8K at 11:30 a.m.