Sept. 26, 1999

The University of Missouri men's cross country team turned in a top-10 team performance at the Roy Griak Invitational held in Minneapolis, Minn. on Saturday, Sept 25. The men placed ninth and were the highest finishing Big 12 team in the field that included 14 top-30 teams.

Not only did the meet provide the Tigers with the opportunity to see how they stacked up against the rest of the country, it also gave MU its first look at some of the other Big 12 teams. The MU men had a team score of 263 points (9th) to finish seven places higher than conference opponent Nebraska who placed 16th with 391 points. Rounding out the conference foes on the both sides were Iowa State (21st) and Kansas (23rd).

For the men, a team race could not have been demonstrated any better as the Tigers were only separated by 18 seconds. All five of Missouri's scorers were within 20 places of each other. Junior Mike Pitts was Mizzou's lead runner finishing 42nd with a time of 25:27, followed closely by fellow junior Nick Smith who placed 44th and completed the 8k race in 25 minutes and 30 seconds. Junior Adam MacDowell ran the course in 25:38 for a 54th place finish while sophomore Steve Wade and senior Joel McCune finished 61st and 62nd both with a time of 25:45. Up next for the Tigers is the Notre Dame Invitational on Friday, October 1 in South Bend, Ind. This will be MU's first of two meets in Indiana during the month of October.

Men's Individual Results **Winner and Missouri Only**

1. Steve Fein (Oregon) 24:13 42. Mike Pitts 25:27 44. Nick Smith 25:30 54. Adam MacDowell 25:38 61. Steve Wade 25:45 62. Joel McCune 25:45 72. Greg Speicher 25:50 81. Phil Councilor 25:55

Men's Team Results Top 10 and Big 12 only (National Ranking)

1. (5) Wisconsin 86 2. (27) BYU 133 3. (6) Northern Arizona 143 4. (9) Oregon 172 5. (19) Weber State 197 6. (7) Providence 206 7. (30) Portland 209 8. (21) Arizona State 217 9. (26) MISSOURI 263 10. (29) Duke 325 16. Nebraska 391 21. Iowa State 500 23. Kansas 593