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Cross country takes next step

After a strong showing in the Missouri Valley Conference Championships, the SIU men's and women's cross country teams travel to the NCAA Regional Championships with a little more confidence on their backs.

"We are all real confident going into the Regional after the MVC's," senior Eli Baker said. "Plus moving up in regional rankings also gave us more confidence."

The Saluki cross-country teams will head to Peoria to compete in the NCAA Regional Championships this Saturday.

The top two teams advance to the NCAA Championships in Terre Haute, Ind. Nov. 22. Head coach Matt Sparks does not foresee the men's or women's teams placing in the top two, but has set a goal of finishing in the top six.

"This year we have set ourselves as a team that is capable of winning the Valley or coming close to winning it on both sides," Sparks said. "So the next step is for us to become a national calibur team."

The men go into the meet ranked 8th in the Midwest region. The women are ranked 9th going into the Regional.

Sparks said the Big 12 teams tend to dominate the rankings, and he expects the Salukis to do better than what the rankings say.

"I think on a good day our teams should exceed those rankings," Sparks said. "Often times our conference gets overlooked in the regional rankings."

In addition to placing sixth, Sparks would also like to see a couple Salukis make it to All-Region by finishing in the top 25 individually.

Sparks sees Joe Byrne and Diarmuid Grant as possible All-Region qualifiers on the men's side, and sophomore Brittani Christensen as a possible qualifier.

"We could have a couple girls breaking in the top 25 with Brittani Christensen leading the way for us based on her fifth place finish at the MVC meet," Sparks said.

Sparks said he has seen some great improvements on the women's team and feels that they are much stronger going into the Regional.

Finishing a close second to the No. 34-ranked Southwest Missouri State, Sparks said that the women have gained not only the confidence to run against them at the Regional, but against any team in SIU's region.

Christensen mirrored Sparks' thoughts and believes the team is ready and more prepared than they were last year.

"We had a couple of really great workouts and we all feel really confident in our ability to go out fast this weekend and hold on throughout the 6K," Christensen said.

The men's team, coming off of a tie with Indiana State for the MVC Championships, feels that it has something to prove at Regionals.

"They've got a little bit to prove," Sparks said "That they are truly the best team and not just a tie for the best team in the conference."

The race will be longer than what the Salukis have been running during the regular season. The men will run a 10K race compared to the usual 8K races, while the women will run a 6K rather than a 5K.

Sparks said the team has not changed anything from a training perspective, but more from a mental perspective.

Over the season, the team has been running longer distances in preparation for the competition, and Sparks said this is something that is not intimidating or scary for the team.

"Our bodies have been trained to run this distance all season," Baker said. "It's just mentally, we have been running an 8K so now we just need to go there knowing that when we hit the 8K marker we still have 2K left and we need to finish strong."

Last season, the men placed 14th out of 22 teams and the women placed 11th out of 11 teams.