Sept. 11, 2004
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The Missouri men's and women's cross country teams both took wins over Southwest Missouri State Saturday at the 12th Annual Missouri Cross Country Challenge. The Tigers outscored the Bears 19-42, on the men's side, and 17-46, on the women's side. The top three in both the women's 5k and the men's 8k were headed by the Tigers. Senior Jill Petersen won her first race of her collegiate career in the women's race and junior Tim Ross took the men's individual crown.
In the women's race, Tiger freshman Maddie Schueler (Louisville, Ky.) led for most of the race, but was overtaken by Petersen (O'Fallon, Mo.) with around 100 meters to go. Schueler finished in 18:07.85, six tenths-of-a-second from the top spot. Petersen won the first meet of her collegiate career. The third spot in the finish went to senior Serena Ramsey (Waukesha, Wisc.) who has now finished third in this meet three years in a row.
"I'm really happy by how our ladies raced today," said Rebecca Wilmes, Associate Head Cross Country Coach. "Our girls look pretty good, and I think our freshmen and sophomores had great races as well."
The women's team, ranked No. 12 in the nation by the FinishLynx Coaches' Poll, grabbed eight of the nine top spots, nearly gaining a perfect score. At the heart of Tigers' scoring were redshirt sophomore Ashley Patten (Clarkston, Mich.) finishing fourth; redshirt junior Amanda Bales (Bettendorf, Iowa) taking fifth despite just recently battling a case of pneumonia; sophomore Katy Bundy (Ballwin, Mo.) who took sixth, clocking in at a personal-best time of 18:53.2; sophomore Kate Greer (Marshalltown, Iowa) took eighth; and junior Kristin Hansen (Milford, Iowa) took ninth.
The men were led by junior Tim Ross (Alto, Mich.), who repeated his performance from the 2002 Challenge winning this year in 25:28.7. Ross has now led the Tigers in four straight meets, dating back to the 2003 season. The men swept the top three with junior Chase Hall (Tulsa, Okla.) taking second and junior Matt Noonan (Baldwin City, Kan.) taking third, the highest individual performance of his career.
Seven of the nine top spots were filled by Tigers in the men's race. Senior Josh Davis (Liberty, Mo.) finished fourth, senior David Mertens (Ballwin, Mo.) placed fifth with the highest placing in his career, freshman Billy Bell (Chesterfield, Mo.) took eighth in his first career eight-kilometer race, and sophomore Colten Green (Roach, Mo.) finished ninth.
The weather for the 10 a.m. and 10:40 a.m. races was warm with temperatures in the upper-70s, the humidity in the high range, and fair skies. The Jefferson City Jays swept both titles in the high school varsity races.
Next for the Tigers is next weekend's Woody Greeno Nebraska Invitational in Lincoln, Neb. For complete results of all of today's races, visit mutigers.com.