Sept. 11, 2010
Complete Results (College/High School)
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The Tigers played host to the Mizzou Cross Country Challenge Saturday morning (Sept. 11) at A.L. Gustin Golf Course. The Mizzou women's team dominated the competition, placing five runners in the top eight, scoring 25 points, while winning the team competition over Kansas and UMKC. The Tiger men finished second overall to KU with 63 points. In the women's 5K run, sophomore Kaitie Vanatta (Littleton, Colo.) won the race with a time of 17:37.20, more than 24 seconds ahead of runner-up Allie Marquis of Kansas. Vanatta has now run in two Missouri Cross Country Challenges in her career and has won both events.
"Overall, I thought we had a great effort from all of our runners, especially with Kansas as one of the opposing teams," head coach Rebecca Wilmes said. "We always want to get after it and beat them. I thought we had a lot of positive results on the women's side. It was great to see Kaitie leading the way, and then we had a lot of nice pack-running with Kinsey, Bailey and Laura."
Senior Kinsey Farren (Dallas, Texas), sophomore Bailey Belvis (Prosper, Texas), junior Laura Roxberg (Overland Park, Kan.), and freshman Marie O'Leary (Normal, Ill.) all finished in the top eight at the meet as well. Farren was fourth at 18:22.69, Belvis was fifth at 18:27.73 while Roxberg and O'Leary finished seventh and eighth, respectively. Mizzou received strong production from its freshmen class as well. Maggie Priebe (Wausau, Wis.) finished 12th and Megan Kowalik (Foristell, Mo.) was 19th. Between the two freshmen were juniors Eden Slater (Stoneboro, Pa.) and Aimee Bonte (Fenton, Mo.), who placed 16th and 17th, respectively.
The Tiger men held their top two runners - Phillip King (Columbia, Mo.) and Dan Quigley (St. Louis, Mo.) - out of the competition to preserve them for later in the season. However, the Tigers got plenty of strong performances, most notably from sophomore Max Storms (Kansas City, Mo.), who led Mizzou with an eighth-place finish at 26:26.17. Junior Kevin McKee (Kansas City, Mo.), who finished second overall at the SIU Early Bird, came in 10th at 26:42.20. Junior Aaron Dixon (Lee's Summit, Mo.) finished 13th, one spot ahead of freshman Merid Seleshi (Ontario, Canada) as they posted times of 27:00.79 and 27:07.62, respectively. The Tigers' other competitors both were freshmen as Hayden Legg (Mexico, Mo.) finished 23rd while Pat Donnelly (Philadelphia, Pa.) was 28th.
"On the men's side, we made some personnel decisions to protect our team for championship time and long-term success," Wilmes said. "It was nice to see Max and Kevin step up. We're looking at the best things for our team in terms of development throughout the season."
The Tigers will have a three-week break before their next competition, which is Oct. 2 in Louisville, Ky., where they will take part in the Greater Louisville Cross Country Challenge. For all the latest news on Mizzou Cross Country, stay tuned to MUTigers.com.