Sept. 3, 2010
Carbondale, Ill.-- Mizzou cross country dominated the competition on Friday (Sept. 3) at the Saluki Early Bird, hosted by Southern Illinois at the SIU Cross Country Course. Junior newcomer Eden Slater (Stoneboro, Pa.) was the highlight of the day as she won the women's 4k in a time of 15:01.4, finishing more than eight seconds ahead of runner-up Katelyn Jones of Murray State.
"The purpose of a meet like this is to get some experience for our runners in order to build quality depth and I thought we did a very nice job of racing today," head coach Rebecca Wilmes said. "I thought we had some really nice performances on both sides today. It was great to see Eden win for us. The girl that she beat from Murray State is a very good runner."
Mizzou ran primarily its "B" teams on both sides, which was comprised of primarily middle distance runners. The competition was a non-scored "friendly" race that featured a 4K race on the women's side and a 6K race on the men's side. Murray State, SIU and Rend Lake College all competed at the meet.
Following Slater on the women's side, a Tiger foursome of Aimee Bonte (Fenton, Mo.), Jessica Armstrong (Dorr, Mich.), Layne Moore (Emporia, Kan.) and Megan Kowalik (Foristell, Mo.) took the third through sixth spots, and Chelsea Chrisman (Eureka, Mo.) finished 11th to give Mizzou six of the top 11 finishers.
On the men's side, junior Kevin McKee (Kansas City, Mo.) finished second, 10 seconds behind Lucas Cherry of host Southern Illinois, marking the second-straight season that he has paced the Tigers at the SIU Early Bird. Freshman Pat Donnelly (Philadelphia, Pa.) came in sixth, while Ricky West (Scarborough, Ontario) and Blake Irwin (Bettendorf, Iowa) finished 10th and 11th, respectively. Jon Hughes came in 15th to give the Tigers five runners in the top 15, the most of any school.
"I thought Kevin ran really well today and he was really in contention to win the race until the very end, it really was one of his best performances," Wilmes commented. "The rest of the runners really gave us a lot of strong performances to build on as well."
The Tigers return home next Saturday (Sept. 11) to host the Missouri Cross Country Challenge. Competition begins at 8 a.m. at A.L. Gustin Golf Course. For more information on Mizzou Cross Country, please visit MUTigers.com.