September 29,
2006 WOMEN FINISH FIRST, MEN 14TH OF 20 IN HIGHLY COMPETITIVE FIELD Men's Results | Women's Results (.pdf) SOUTH BEND, Ind. – Indiana State men and women’s cross country traveled to South Bend, Indiana and competed well in the 51st annual Notre Dame Invitational on Friday afternoon. In one of the most competitive fields, Indiana State’s men finished 14th of 20 in the men’s Blue race, while the women finished first in the women’s Gold race. ISU’s Laura Engle entered the meet as the defending champion and finished third (17:58) for the best Sycamore finish on the day. Teammate Dani Prince finished just out of the top-ten in 11th-place with a time of 18:19. “Laura ran well for us today,” women’s head coach John Gartland said. “Dani did an outstanding job, considering she was ill and almost didn’t compete today. I was most impressed with our three, four and five runners. That trio finishing in the 30’s really sealed the victory for us today.” Julia Costello, Kayla Alexander and Leah Durr would finish clumped together in 36, 37 and 39th place, each with times of 18:53, 18:53 and 18:54. ISU’s other finishers included Emily Pugh (19:29), Sarah Engle (20:44) and an injured Karla Negron running 21:44 and Andrianne Wunderlich finishing with a time of 22:20 in the field of 188 athletes. Windsor’s Jackie Malette (1st; 17:33), San Jose State’s Tiffany Mari Hall (2nd;17:39), IPFW’s Ashley Ritchey (4th;18:02) and Akron’s Sediah Erskine (5th;18:02) rounded out the top five in the women’s Gold race. “We didn’t have a bad race today, but we didn’t know what to expect,” men’s head coach John McNichols said after the meet. The Blue race featured seven ranked squads and some of the toughest competition the men have faced up to this point in the season. “Our guys all had respectable times and did a nice job of getting out quickly in the beginning,” McNichols continued. “With us getting out so well, it may have been harder for our guys to hang on near the end.” Sean Bowman turned in the top finish for the men on the day, crossing the line in 41st-place with a time of 24:43. Justin Kunz and Scott Keeney followed in 63 (62 scored) and 65th (64 scored) place with times of 25:02 and 25:02. Rounding out the men’s top five were Kyle Walsh in 74th (73 scored) recording a 25:05 and Jared Messman in 95th (94 scored), finishing in 25:25. Other runners competing for the Sycamores included Randy Placencia (25:50), Justin Floyd (25:56), Eric Schulz (26:12) and Tony McDaniel (26:34). Wisconsin All-American Chris Solinsky picked up his second individual title with the win at the meet with a time of 23:24. Weber State’s Seth Pilkinton (23:40), Notre Dame’s Patrick Smyth (23:46), Florida State’s Andrew Lemoncello (23:48) and Florida’s Jeremy Criscione (23:48) rounded out the top five for the men. Indiana State will next host the Pre-Nationals at the LaVern Gibson Championship Course on October 14 with the first races of the day beginning at 11:00 a.m. A near record amount of teams are scheduled to compete at the event including 90 women teams and 88 men’s teams. For more information on the meet and the list of teams scheduled to competed, please visit http://www.indstate.edu/athletic/cross/. WOMEN TEAM RESULTS - GOLD 1. Indiana State MEN TEAM RESULTS - BLUE 1. NC State University
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