Sept. 12, 2009
By: Spencer Engel
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Mizzou women's cross country team won the Missouri Cross Country Challenge Saturday morning at A.L. Gustin Golf Course while an undermanned men's team took second place to the University of Kansas.
Tiger freshman Katie Vanatta (Littleton, Colo.) placed first overall to set the pace for the Tiger women in the 5k trek. Vanatta ran the course in 17:54.3, immediately followed by two fellow Tigers - senior Ellen Ries (Ryan, Iowa) and freshman Bailey Belvis (Prosper, Texas) - who clocked in at 18:02.8 and 18:05.7, respectively. Sophomores Aimee Bontee and Laura Roxberg rounded out the Tigers' top five. They placed eighth and 11th overall, respectively, with times of 18:56.0 and 19:12.4.
Head coach Jared Wilmes expressed excitement about his 2009 women's team.
"You are going to see a new look to the women's cross country team this year," Wilmes said. "It has quite a new feel to it."
The men's cross country team failed to repeat as Missouri Cross Country champions, but Wilmes said the result is no cause for alarm. Not only is the meet an exhibition, Wilmes said, but the second-place finish can also be partially attributed to a flu bug.
"We didn't really run a lot of our best guys at the meet," Wilmes said. "I am more concerned about getting the guys back that have been sick. I know that they are fit, it's just a matter of whether we can get them back."
Junior Dan Quigley (St. Louis) was the most notable runner held out of Saturday's race. There was at least one encouraging performance Saturday. Tiger junior Phillip King (Columbia, Mo.) took first place overall in the men's meet with a time of 25:46.3, which was 19 seconds better than second-place finisher, Don Wasinger of Kansas.
Kansas finished its top six runners before the next Mizzou runner, Kyle Rood (St. Peters, Mo.), crossed the line as the ninth overall finisher with a time of 26:33.3.
Sophomores Phil Bascio (Florissant, Mo.) and Ben Brammeier (Ballwin, Mo.) were the third and fourth Tiger finishers, 11th and 18th overall, respectively. Bascio finished the course in 26:40.8, while Brammeier trailed with a time of 27:18.5. Junior Kevin McKee (Kansas City, Mo.) immediately followed Brammeier with a time of 27:25.5 to round out the Tiger top five.
Wilmes was excited about the progress that the team made during the meet and saw many of positives to take away as the program starts to set its sights on the Championship meets later in the season.
"The biggest thing is getting them ready for the conference meet in seven weeks," Wilmes said. "This meet doesn't count for anything other than pride."
Mizzou will return to the cross country course in two weeks when they head to Minnesota to take part in the Roy Griak Classic. For all the latest on Mizzou cross country, stay tuned to www.mutigers.com.