Sept. 20, 1999
Missouri Heads to Minnesota
The University of Missouri men's and women's cross country teams will be heading to Minnesota for the Roy Griake Invitational on Saturday, Sept. 25. The men's 8,000m race is set to begin at 11a.m. with the women's 5,000m race following at 12:00 noon.
This Saturday's invitational will bring together several schools from around the country ranked in the top-30 including 1998 men's and women's team champions Providence. A few of the other teams that MU will be competing against will be PAC 10 teams Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA and Oregon, Big 10 powers Iowa, Michigan State, Penn State, Purdue, Minnesota and Wisconsin along with Big 12 rivals Iowa State and Nebraska. The women's No. 2 ranked, BYU, will also be in attendance. The men's course record is held by Jonah Kiptarus of Nebraska with a time of 23:57, which was set in 1996. On the women's side, Villanova's Vicki Huber owns the course record with a time of 16:19, set in 1989. For more information check out the University of Minnesota's cross country website at: www.gophersports.com or www.appleraceberryjam.com
Missouri Opens Season with Two Wins
The Missouri men's and women's cross country teams opened their season in spectacular fashion last Friday afternoon (Sept. 10) at A.L. Gustin Golf Course. Both teams overwhelmed the competition as the men claimed the top seven places while the women finished in a 1-2-3-4 sweep with their fifth runner placing seventh.
Teams Excited to Compete
After taking last weekend off, the Missouri Tigers are ready to hit the road and see exactly how they match up against the rest of the country.
"The first meet broke the ice for the team," said head coach Jeff Pigg. "It gave the freshman a chance to get their feet wet."
The Roy Griak Invitational will give MU a chance to see how they stack up against the rest of the country and allow them to see exactly what needs to be done throughout the remainder of the season.
"We are looking forward to seeing the other teams," Pigg said. " Everybody is giddy, but ready to line up and race. There will be some positives as well as some negatives as there is with every race, but we can not wait!" At the home opener the squads ran hard to see what they had individually. At the Roy Griak Invite, they are going to try and stay together and see what they have as a team.
MU Struts Its Stuff at Home Opener
"Last weekend was exciting," said Pigg. " It was great to see all their hard work from the summer pay off. Until you actually line up on the start line, you really do not know how fit you are."
On the women's side, they were nearly as perfect scoring 17 points. Sophomore Ann Marie Brooks took the lead in the last half of the race to claim the victory in a time of 18:09.81. The other Tigers to finish in the top 10 were freshman Amy Chipman who finished second with a time of 18:22.35, juniors Katie Meyer (18:37.93) Justa Dahl (18:43.35), and Sunny Gilbert (19:03.72), finished in third, fourth and seventh respectively. Sophomore Kim Moore placed ninth in a time of 19:06.28 while freshman Katie Sekinger finished tenth with a time of 19:22.25.
"It was the best season opener we have ever had," Pigg said. "We lined up with the best teams we have ever had here at Missouri. We have talked about how good we are going to be so it was nice to see the kids run better than we expected. It showed me how hard they all worked this summer and now we know how good we can be."
The Tiger Newcomers
At the Missouri/Evian Natural Spring Water Cross Country Challenge the MU women's team is laying the foundation for a solid future with its newcomers. There were several Tigers competing for the first time in their Missouri cross country uniforms.
Those runners competing for the first time were: Amy Chipman (2nd), Katie Sekinger (10th), Kerry Hils (12th/19:31.39), Anna Gullinsrud (13th/19:36.72), Ashley McLeod (14th/19:45.05) and Amy Semith (20th/20:15.93).