ROLLA, Mo. — Missouri S&T will host one of the top regional cross country meets of the season Saturday at the NCAA Division II level, as four schools representing the Great Lakes Valley Conference and four others from the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association will hook up in Rolla for the inaugural GLVC-MIAA Challenge.
The meet will begin with the women’s five-kilometer race at 10 a.m., followed by the men’s eight-kilometer event slated to kick off at 10:45 a.m. Saturday’s meet will feature a number of the top teams in both the Midwest and South Central regions, including several currently residing in the United States Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association’s Top 25 this week.
Besides Missouri S&T, the other GLVC teams that will take part are Drury, Northern Kentucky and Southern Indiana, while the MIAA’s representatives will be Missouri Southern, Pittsburg State, Southwest Baptist and Truman State. Missouri S&T’s alumni will compete following the two collegiate races.
WOMEN’S RACE: The first race of the morning will be headlined by the nation’s third-ranked team, as Missouri Southern holds that spot this week as one of three Top 25 teams in the field. Southern Indiana is ranked 13th this week in Division II and Pittsburg State holds the No. 17 spot. Missouri Southern is also No. 1 in the South Central Region this week, with Pittsburg State at No. 3 and Truman State right behind the Gorillas. The Midwest Region has Southern Indiana in second and Northern Kentucky at No. 10 this week.
Rolla native Kimi Shank, a senior at Missouri Southern, is the defending MIAA champion and has earned two “Runner of the Week” awards from that conference this year. In fact, all four of the MIAA’s weekly award winners — including MSSU’s Ashley Siler, Truman State’s Dani Dell’Orco and Pittsburg State’s Jennifer Butler — are in Saturday’s field. The GLVC’s top runner this season at six kilometers, Southern Indiana’s Mary Ballenger, has won three of the league’s five weekly awards this season and was the runner-up at the 2008 GLVC Championships held at Missouri S&T. In addition, Northern Kentucky’s Jenna Seimer placed fourth at last year’s GLVC meet and owns the conference’s seventh-best time at five kilometers this fall.
Missouri S&T’s top performers this season have been freshman Lisa Lake, who has a top time of 19:02 over five kilometers and sophomore Colleen Conrad, who posted a 19:07 earlier this season at the 5K distance.
MEN’S RACE: In the second race, five of the top 25 teams in this week’s national rankings will be in the field. Southern Indiana is the highest ranked of the quintet at No. 10, followed by Southwest Baptist at No. 14, Missouri Southern in 19th, Drury in 20th and Pittsburg State at No. 23. Six of the eight teams are currently ranked in their respective regional polls, with Southern Indiana second in the Midwest Region and Drury third, while four MIAA teams — Southwest Baptist (third), Missouri Southern (fourth), Pittsburg State (sixth) and Truman State (eighth) — are in this week’s South Central regional rankings.
The GLVC’s reigning “Runner of the Week”, Drew Harris, a three-time recipient of the award during the 2009 season, will join up with Drury’s Jaime Villa Zapatero — the defending conference champion — and Brendan Devine from 2008 league champion Southern Indiana to headline the top runners from the GLVC side of the ledger. The top three finishers from last year’s GLVC meet — Villa Zapatero, Harris and USI’s Dustin Emerick — and three of the top four from the MIAA last season head the field. On the MIAA’s side, Michael Pierce from defending champion from Southwest Baptist and a two-time winner of that’s league’s weekly award, will be in the race along with Mujahid Hassaballa, the 2008 MIAA champion from Pittsburg State and Truman State’s Joey Wells, the winner of the Miner Invitational held last month on the course Saturday’s race will take place at.
Missouri S&T’s top performance at eight kilometers has come from freshman David Huskisson, who posted a mark of 26:03 at Missouri Southern last month. Jason Barry, a sophomore, was S&T’s top finisher at last year’s conference meet in 17th place.