Reid Parsons leads Men's Cross Country team to victory at Saluki Invite

Friday, August 30

Carbondale, IL

6 p.m.

Southern Illinois University

Saluki Invite

Reid Parsons leads Men's Cross Country team to victory at Saluki Invite

08/30/2019 | 9:08:00 | Cross Country

Saluki Invite

By: By Tom Weber, SIUSalukis.com

CARBONDALE, Ill. — Southern Illinois sophomore Reid Parsons won the Saluki Invite on the men's side, while senior Megan Krolak took second place for the women, in the opening meet of the 2019 cross country season.

The Salukis competed head-to-head versus SEMO in a two-team, 5k meet with the men easily winning, 39-19, and the women falling by the narrowest of margins, 28-27.

Parsons crossed the finish line with a time of 16:03.24, while teammates Cain Hassim (2nd/16:14.63), J.T. Hodges (4th, 16:30.65) and Theo Hassim (5th, 16:34.68) all finished in the top five.

Last year, the Salukis had the best runner in the league with Missouri Valley Conference champion Josh Maier taking home the individual title. Today's meet began to answer the question of who would fill the graduating senior's shoes.

"With Josh, everyone knew who was up front," said Rosalind Joseph, director of track & field/cross country for SIU. "This year, it's really anybody's game, which was proven today. Reid is a sophomore who kind of thought, 'why not?' and for us it's good to have athletes who don't mind taking it and teammates who support that."

Krolak's time of 18:27.13 bested her nearest competitor by 10 seconds. Three freshmen — Rachel Anderson (5th/19:04.37), Fallon Russell (7th/19:30.12) and Josie Brown (10th/19:54.88) — also finished in the top 10 for SIU.

"It was exciting to see our freshmen step up, put the jersey on and get a feel for college cross country," Joseph said.

Two of Southern's top three runners on the women's side — Kayla Schiera and Oliva Murphy — sat out the meet. Schiera is coming off competition at the Junior Olympic Trials, while Murphy is rehabbing an injury. Both are expected back soon.

"SEMO was runner-up in the Ohio Valley Conference last year to a really good Eastern Kentucky team, so to lose to them by one point while sitting out two women really says a lot," said Saluki cross country coach Kevin Cataldo.

The men were also short-handed due to injuries, competing without Jacob DeWitt and Chris Edwards.

"That was by far the closest spread we've had 1-5 since I've been here in the last four years," Cataldo said.

The Salukis will have three more preparatory meets before competing at the MVC Championships on Nov. 2, in Valparaiso, Indiana.

"Our sport is different than any other sport with all meets leading up to the conference championship," Cataldo explained. "What are we going to learn, what are we going to take away from each experience? I'm just hopeful everyone took away something positive, something they can work on from this meet."