September 8, 2006 SYCAMORES SWEEP AT BRADLEY CROSS COUNTRY OPEN Men's Results (.pdf) PEORIA, Ill. – Paced by Laura Engle’s first place finish among Division I runners the Indiana State women’s cross country team raced to a first place finish at the Bradley University Cross Country Open on Friday afternoon. The men’s cross country team was led by Kyle Walsh’s third-place finish en route to a first place team finish to complete the sweep. Indiana State’s women finished with 41 points, ahead of UNI in second with 47 and Illinois State in third with 74. Rounding out the final eight was Bradley (96), IUPUI (142), DePaul (144), Northern Illinois (159) and Northwestern (232). The women proved that polls can be deceiving after being picked sixth in the pre-season conference poll and ended the meet placing above Northern Iowa and Illinois State, ranked above the Sycamores earlier in the year. Joining Engle (18:07.67) in the top-ten finishers among Division I runners were Dani Prince, placing fourth (18:27.30) and freshman Kayla Alexander, crossing the line in seventh with a time of 18:43.11. “It is good to get the season started with a win,” women’s head coach John Gartland said after the meet. “We were able to beat UNI and Illinois State, who had been ranked ahead of us in the beginning of the year.” Indiana State almost didn’t arrive at Detweiller Park as the bus encountered mechanical problems on the way, causing the team to find other avenues to the meet. “I was very impressed with the maturity of the athletes today,” Gartland said of the experience. “Even after the bus broke down, the athletes really came out and performed well.” Filling the women’s team score was Julia Costello (11th, 18:54.71), Karla Negron (18th, 19:20.90), Leah Durr (21st, 19:38.79) and Sarah Engle (46th, 21:10.65). Freshmen Adriane Wunderlich and Sarah Heaton rounded out the marks for ISU with each finishing 48th and 60th with times of 21:16.80 and 22:16.51, respectively. The men would also place three in the top ten as the Sycamores rolled to a first-place finish with 42 points. DePaul would follow with 73, UNI with 79, Bradley and Illinois State tied at 94 and IUPUI in sixth with 111. Redshirt freshman Scott Keeney finished close behind Walsh (25:19) in fourth-place with a time of 25:27 and fellow freshman Jared Messman crossing the line in seventh place at 25:36. “Everything went as planned for us today,” men’s head coach John McNichols said. “We were able to get the win despite holding out some of our key guys. We really had some great performances from the guys who ran the course today.” Freshmen Justin Floyd would be the next Sycamore to finish the course with a time of 25:53.53 in 12th place. Senior Erik Forehand would make a return from nagging injuries and finish 16th with a time of 26:01.44 ahead of freshman Randy Placencia in 18th (26:08.02). Eric Schultz (26th, 26:29.86), Jeremy Kunz (28th, 26:33.78), David Santelik (29th, 26:38.29) and John Lambertus (33rd, 26:58.87) completed the results for Indiana State on the day. “We are happy with the performance and we will be looking forward at putting the rest of the team together at the Indiana Intercollegiates next weekend,” McNichols said in reference to next week’s action. Indiana State will host the Indiana Intercollegiates for the first time since 2003 at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course. The starting pistol will sound for the first race at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, September 15. Women’s Results (top 10 of 74) Other ISU Finishers: Other ISU Finishers: # # #
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