Sept. 12, 2003
PEORIA, Ill. (Detweiller Park) - Six days after winning both divisions of the Missouri Cross Country Challenge, the men's and women's Missouri Cross Country teams competed in the Bradley Open at Detweiller Park in Peoria, Ill, on Friday afternoon. The women's team, ranked No. 17 in the nation and first in the Midwest region, outran thirteen other Division I teams, including No. 27 Marquette, securing their sixth meet win in nine tries. The lady Tigers were paced by sophomore Valerie Lauver (Allen, Texas) and junior Jill Petersen (O'Fallon, Mo.) who finished second and third, respectively.
Both men's and women's teams sought the Bradley Open to be more of a training meet than a competitive event. The women won the meet without the efforts of Big 12 Runner of the Week and champion of last week's Missouri Cross Country Challenge, sophomore Amanda Bales.
"We wanted to get some of our veterans and newcomers real meet experience, and we saw the Bradley Open to be a perfect chance to do so," said Cross Country Head Coach Jared Wilmes. "Again, we were happy with our performance all-around with a meet that was meant primarily for training. Just as last week, we had an opportunity to give more runners on our team an opportunity to better themselves and prepare for the championship season up ahead."
Led by Lauver (17:40) and Petersen (17:41), the women's team took first place in the 5k race over Marquette by seven points, 41-48. The Golden Eagles had the race winner in Heidi Lindeman who took the title by only two seconds. Lauver and Petersen were followed by Redshirt Freshman Ashley Patten who placed sixth (17:58), sophomore Kristin Hansen in 11th place (18:06), senior Katherine Bonugli in 21st (18:22), true freshman Allison Werner right behind in 22nd (18:23), freshman Kate Greer in 24th (18:26), senior Sonya Yamnitz in 37th (18:48), and junior Lesley Smith who placed 48th (19:02).
The men finished seventh in the thirteen team field in the 8k race and were led by junior David Mertens (Ballwin, Mo.) who finished \in 14th place (26:08).
"It's always great to see the guys who you depend on to round out the scoring in your meets to step-up and make great strides to improve themselves," said Wilmes. "David showed good improvement in today's race, and I'm pretty impressed by it."
Wilmes was also impressed by the running of freshman Tipper O'Brian who finished second for the Tigers and 35th overall (26:06).
"We were giving Tipper this opportunity to get some early cross country experience, and it proved to be a real good thing."
Freshman Colten Green finished 47th (26:16) in his second meet as a Tiger, and Neville Miller and Andrew Norton both achieved personal bests to round-out Mizzou's scoring.
The Tigers next step in the 2003 cross country campaign will be a trip to Minneapolis, Minn., on Saturday, September 27, were the Tiger harriers will compete in the annual Roy Griak Invitaional and will prove to be Mizzou's first big competition.