October 14, 2006 INDIANA STATE LIVES
UP TO THE BILLING OF CROSS COUNTRY CROSSROADS, U.S.A. Men's Blue Race: Team
| Individual CROSS COUNTRY CROSSROADS, U.S.A. (TERRE HAUTE, Ind.) – Indiana State, in conjunction with sponsors and fans, successfully wrapped up its largest meet of the year in the Pre-Nationals on Saturday. The Sycamores finished 35th and 27th, respectively for the women and men. The races with 36 scoring teams in each race pitted ISU against some of the best competition in the nation and caught men’s head coach John McNichols slightly off guard. “The field this year was tougher than last year,” McNichols said after the meet. “The team ran comparable to last year, but this was a deeper, tougher field and we may have underestimated the competition coming into the meet today.” Each team was placed in the Blue race, translating into the perception that Indiana State ranks in the top 70 in the nation on both the men’s and women’s side. “We were pleased to have been selected into that Blue race,” women’s head coach John Gartland said of his team’s placement. “We didn’t do as well as we would have hoped, but feel that we ran a solid race.” Indiana State’s top finishers included Justin Kunz on the men’s side (75 of 243) with a time of 24:44 in the 8k and Laura Engle for the women (102 of 245) with a time of 21:42 on the redesigned 6k course. The men placed ahead of teams such as Indiana, Air Force Academy (ranked in the Mountain Region) and Central Michigan (currently ranked above ISU in the Great Lakes Regional poll). Other notable performances for the Sycamores included Dani Prince’s personal best time of 21:49 in a strong effort, according to Gartland. Scott Keeney (25:06), Kyle Walsh (25:16) and Jared Messman (25:34) each posted their best effort on the LaVern Gibson Championship course to highlight performances on the men’s side. With positive team performances, both coaches now turn their sites to the Conference Championships in two weeks in Lincoln, Nebraska. # # #
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