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Men and women dominate cross county

SIU's Sarah Rinker led the women's cross country team to its second title of the year Saturday with a season-best time of 17 minutes and 39.71 seconds in Evansville.

The sophomore finished second out of 91 runners and broke SIU's previous five-kilometer season record of 17:50, held by teammate Brittani Christensen.

Rinker was one of four Salukis to finish in the top ten, with sophomores Lindsay Wagner (17:58.18), Cherylynn Schilling (18:05.83) and freshman Shelby Brice (18:04.73) also posting notable times. Wagner finished sixth, Brice captured eighth and Schilling ended up in ninth.

With less than 30 seconds between Rinker and Schilling, SIU head cross country coach Matt Sparks saw the fulfillment of his desire for the women to work as a group.

"Working together was one of our main objectives going into this event," Sparks said.

The strong performances of the SIU women compensated for the absence of three Saluki competitors - senior Noa Beitler, sophomore Brittani Christensen and freshman Jessica Ordway.

Beitler was tending to a family illness in Israel, Christensen was sick with the flu and Ordway couldn't finish due to breathing difficulties, something that also hindered her performance in the Saluki Invitational, Oct. 9.

The fractured SIU team still collected only 29 points, easily defeating Valparasio University who came in at a distant second with 52 points.

Missouri Valley Conference teams Creighton (70 points) and Evansville (138 points) also fell to the Salukis in the 5k race.

Meanwhile, the Saluki men also took first place in the open race of the Pre-NCAA Championship meet held at Indiana State.

Senior Eli Baker was the sole Saluki in the top 10, finishing 10th with a time of 24:15.

Coming in only one second behind Baker was SIU sophomore Diarmuid Grant. His time of 25:16 earned him 11th place in the event.

Juniors Joe Byrne (21st, 25:29.5) and Rob Duncan (62nd, 26:08.8) and sophomore Hunter Sheldon (63rd, 26:09.6) rounded out the top-five Saluki finishes in the 8k event.

"We had three guys up front and our fourth, fifth and sixth guys really picked it up." Baker said.

The runners in the back Baker alluded to is something Sparks was glad to see. It is a development on the men's team he has been waiting most of the season for.

"I've been preaching all year about needing to have our fifth runner come out and perform," Sparks said. "Rob Duncan and Hunter Sheldon really impressed me by working together to do that."

The Salukis accumulated a total of 51 points, with South Dakota (72 points) taking second-place honors.

The Saluki men were able to compare their times with those of the teams competing in the blue and white races at the event. Those races were a bit more competitive and hosted some of the top-ranked teams in the country.

While the Salukis posted respectable times in the open race, they would have finished somewhere in the middle of the more than 200 runners competing in the blue race.

That is something Sparks did not want with the looming Missouri Valley Conference championships to be held at SIU on October 30.

"The guys said they felt much more confident running in the open race," Sparks said. "That's exactly what we wanted."

Baker agreed, saying the open race was something they could really compete in. "Mentally, being up in the front makes you want to compete more," Baker said, referring to the open race. "It allowed us to race against other schools without having to go head-to-head with them."