Cross Country competes at NCAA Midwest Regional

Friday, November 9

Peoria, Ill.

Southern Illinois University

NCAA Midwest Regional

11/09/2018 | 3:51:00 | Cross Country

Men finish 22nd, women 30th at the regional meet.

The Southern Illinois cross country teams competed Friday in the 2018 NCAA Midwest Regional Championship in Peoria, Ill.

As a team, the men placed 22nd out of 31, while the women placed 30th out of 35.

The meet was ran at the Newman Golf Course, which marked the third time that Southern has ran the course in five weeks and is generally considered a fast course.

The top finisher for the Saluki men was Josh Maier who placed 45th in a field of 208 runners. He clocked in a 10K time of 32:04.8.

Redshirt junior Cain Hassim placed 81st with a time of 32:35.4. Jacob DeWitt finished in a time of 33:25.8 to place 132nd, while Theo Hassim ran 34:22.0 to finish 163rd. Michael Church rounded out the lineup placing 166th.

The Saluki women were led by Olivia Murphy, who placed 110th with a time of 22:14.6. The redshirt sophomore was one of five running at the regional meet for the first time.

Redshirt junior Megan Krolak finished in 151st place with a 6K time of 22:40.1. Kayla Schiera was the next finisher for the Salukis, as she placed 183rd with a time of 23:17.1. Sydney Matusik placed 201st with a personal-best 6K time of 23:45.4. Grace McDurmon completed the roster for SIU as she came in 207th.

A total of 38 individual runners are selected to compete at nationals following team qualifications. The top-four finishers at each regional from non-qualifying teams receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, as long as they finished in the top 25 at the regional meet. Two at-large bids for remaining runners in a national pool of top-25 regional finishers also will be selected.