Oct. 16, 2004
TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - On a cold and windy Saturday at the NCAA Pre-National meet, the No. 10 nationally-ranked Missouri women's cross country team held their own, placing fourth in a race housed with 14 top 30 teams including four from the national top 10. Junior Amanda Bales led the women's team, and junior Matt Noonan led the men's team to a 23rd-place team finish.
The Tiger women placed fourth in the Blue Division race with 171 points behind No. 1 Stanford, No. 6 Notre Dame, and No. 8 North Carolina. The Tigers also finished higher than conference opponents, No. 16 Baylor and No. 27 Texas Tech and scored wins over the four teams from the NCAA's Midwest Region. All-in-all, each race contained an average of 35 teams and 250 runners.
In the six-kilometer (3.7 miles) women's race, junior Amanda Bales (Bettendorf, Iowa) led the team with a 14th-place individual finish, clocking in at 20:59.3. Followed closely behind by senior Jill Petersen (O'Fallon, Mo.) who finished 18th with a personal-best time of 21:07.3. Fellow senior Serena Ramsey (Waukesha, Wisc.) took 35th in 21:29. Freshman Maddie Schueler (Louisville, Ky.) ran for a new personal-best of 21:42.5 with her 50th-place showing. Junior Kristin Hansen rounded out the Tiger scoring in 57th.
The men's team beat out three of the four teams from the NCAA Midwest Region to place 23rd overall with 511 points in the eight-kilometer (5 mile) "White" Divison race. Junior Matt Noonan (Baldwin City, Kan.) led the way with a 70th-place individual finish, running in 25:02.8. Tim Ross (Alto, Mich.), Chase Hall (Tulsa, Okla.), Josh Davis (Liberty, Mo.), and David Mertens (Ballwin, Mo.) rounded out the scoring for the Tiger squad, finishing 83rd, 94th, 101st, and 163rd, respectively.
The course itself was in good shape, a few soft spots that gave way to a fast landscape for the remainder of the race. Weather-wise, it was a different story. For the 11:00 a.m. start of the women's race, the sun was shinning with temperatures in the mid-40s with a strong westerly wind at 20-30 m.p.h. The 12:50 p.m. start of the men's race proved to be even more brutal as the clouds billowed up enough to allow no sunshine to come through and warm the course.
The NCAA Pre-National race is built to allow many of the championship contending schools a chance to preview the NCAA Championship course. Indiana State will be the host school of this year's championship which is held the Monday before Thanksgiving. Terre Haute is also the site of the 2005 and 2006 NCAA Cross Country Championships.
Next week, the Tigers take a week off to prepare for the Big 12 Cross Country Championships, which will be held October 30 in Topeka, Kan. For complete results of today's race, visit mutigers.com.