Salukis travel to Nashville for Commodore Classic

Saturday, September 15

Nashville, TN

Southern Illinois University

Commodore Classic

Photo by: Tom Weber

09/14/2018 | 9:54:00 | Cross Country

Live Results

By: Will Becque, SIUSalukis.com

The Southern Illinois University men's and women's cross country teams will compete at the 15th annual Commodore Classic, hosted by Vanderbilt University, on Saturday, Sept. 15.

The Salukis highlight a talented field of teams slated to run Saturday at Percy Warner Park that includes Austin Peay, Belmont, Chattanooga, Eastern Kentucky, Illinois, Louisville, Lipscomb, Murray State, Ohio State, UAB, Xavier and Vanderbilt, among others.

On a hot and humid Saturday last season, both the Saluki men and women finished 12th. Josh Maier led Southern's men with a 29th place finish while Megan Krolak took 31st out of 192 runners. The weather forecast for Nashville, Tenn. is calling for temperatures between 80-83 degrees at race time on Saturday.

"The course is honest," third-year cross country coach Kevin Cataldo said of Vanderbilt's Percy Warner Park. "It's not a challenging course. It is the conditions that are challenging. The guys race last year was especially hot and humid. Getting our runners acclimated to racing in adverse conditions is another reason why we run this race."

The Saluki men are coming off a strong performance at their home 5K on Aug. 31 in which Southern placed five runners in the top-10, including freshmen Reid Parsons (5th) and Jacob Bryan (7th). For SIU's men the Commodore Classic will mark the first of four-straight 8Ks leading up to the Missouri Valley Conference Cross Country Championships on Oct. 27.

"On the mens side, its about transitioning to running 8,000-meters," Cataldo said. "We're young and for a lot of them this race is a rust-buster 8K. We got the 5K out of the way, but this week its an 8K. For the freshmen, they've never run this. This is completely uncharted waters for them."

SIU's women will run a 5K for the second-straight meet in a field that includes ten top-15 regionally ranked teams led by the Ohio State Buckeyes, who are receiving votes for the top-30 and are No. 6 in the Great Lakes Region. Xavier (Great Lakes, No. 12), Northern Illinois (Midwest, No. 11), Vanderbilt (South, No, 7), Southern Mississippi (South, No. 10), Lipscomb (South, No. 12), Middle Tennessee State (South, No. 13), Belmont (South, No. 14), Louisville (Southeast, No. 6), and Eastern Kentucky (Southeast, No. 7) are all also ranked regionally on the women's side.

"The women have a little bit more of an advantage because they've already raced a 5K once this season," Cataldo said. "For both sides, its going to be much different then our home meet. There are a lot more teams at the Commodore Classic and it's a talented field."

Southern's men will again be paced by Josh Maier, who won his fifth collegiate meet on his home course on Aug. 31. Maier will be joined by Cain Hassim, Theo Hassim, Michael Church, Jacob DeWitt, Jacob Bryan and Reid Parsons.

On the women's side, Olivia Murphy, Megan Krolak, Amber Ruiz-Bueno, Grace McDurmon, Maddy Hurt, Sydney Matusik and Kayla Schiera are expected to run Saturday for the Salukis.

"Going into meets we cant be timid," said SIU Director of Track and Field/Cross Country Rosalind Joseph. "We can't wonder what is going to happen. (The Commodore Classic) gives us a chance to compete and I think thats always necessary if we are going to grow and build."

The Commodore Classic gets underway at 9 a.m. with the men's race, followed by the women's race at 10 a.m. Live Results are available here.