Nov. 8, 1999
Missouri Awaits NCAA Berth
The University of Missouri cross country teams holds their own fate on its own feet. Both teams travel to Champaign, Ill. on Saturday (Nov. 13) to compete at the NCAA Region V Championships. If the teams perform well at the Region meet, they will earn a berth at the NCAA Championships held November 22 in Bloomington, Ind. The men's team starts it 10k race at 11:00 a.m. with the women's 5k race following at 12:00 noon.
Last Time Out
At the 1998 Region V Championships, Missouri achieved a first in the programs history, both teams earned berths to the NCAA Championships. For the men, it was their first trip tot he Big Dance in 21 years.
The women placed second behind Kansas State with 110 points automatically qualifying for nationals. The men's team placed fourth behind Oklahoma State, Iowa and Minnesota with 126 points, earning an at-large big to the NCAA Championships.
Pigg Speaks
On practices: "We are coming off our best week of practice as a team. We are continually improving with each meet and practice on running a complete "team race" which really excited me."
On team attitude: "As a group, we have more momentum than we have all year. This group is hungry, possibly even a little mad. They feel they have something to prove. We are excited because we know we have got more in us."
On the Regional Championships and course: "We have a great district I think one of the top-three in the country. This is a course at the University of Illinois that suits our team very well. We ran there two years ago and had a goo, solid meet. It is a flat course which allows our speed on the women's team to come out. The men now run 10k which is a "man's race". We have a mature team that can handle this distance and course very well."
On the team: "We have a talented team. We have to lay it all out there. This is it. If we put the race together the way we are capable of we can even win. The main thing we need to do is keep the kids healthy, hungry and know the next race will be the best. This potentially is our last race so we can not hold anything back."
Big 12 Rewind
Both teams finished third at the conference championships for the second consecutive year. Colorado claimed the top spot on both sides while the Kansas State women finished second and the Oklahoma State men finished second, one point ahead of the Tigers. Senior Anna Gullingsurd and junior Adam MacDowell were both named to the All-Conference team for their top-15 performances.
Coach Pigg On Big 12 Championships
"We feel fortunate for our third place finishes at Conference," Pigg said. "The Big 12 Conference is the strongest in the country this year. We did not run that great. We are finally starting to come around and look sharp. We starting to run better as a whole team now."
"There is a great comfort in knowing that if we had gotten ready to race either in the season that things might have turned out differently and we could have run better. We know that, however, does not last forever so we decided to make some sacrifices along the way. I would rather have us run our best races at the end of the season rather than at the beginning of the year."
Votes for Pigg
In the voting for the Big 12 Coach-of-the-Year award, head coach Jeff Pigg finished second on the women's side behind Colorado's Mark Wetmore who received the honor. Both is men's and women's teams won the conference championships. Pigg's two votes were the only votes on either side not awarded to Wetmore.
Big 12 Results
Here are the individual finishes of the runners at the conference meet: 8. Anna Gullingsrud 17:26 18. Amy Chipman 17:46 27. Ann Marie Brooks 18:05 30. Katie Meyer 18:07 36. Kerry Hils 18:16 39. Kim Moore 18:18 42. Justa Dahl 18:22 57. Sunny Gilbert 18:42 59. Ashley McLeod 18:47