TERRE HAUTE, Ind. ? The Indiana State men's cross country team had a big challenge in front of it on Saturday at the 2007 Pre-Nationals, as the Sycamores were up against 13 nationally-ranked teams in the men's 8k White Race at the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course located at the Wabash Family Sports Center. The results were mixed for the Sycamores, as the team finished in 33^rd out of 40 teams in the race.

ISU out-raced several other quality teams in Georgia Tech, Yale, Oakland, Coastal Carolina, Montana, Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Western Kentucky.

Men's head cross country coach John McNichols was well of what his team was up against in the race and would have liked to see a stronger performance from his squad.

“There isn't anything like this race in the sport of cross country,” said McNichols. “The field was so deep and rich in the four featured races and we saw that today by some of the times that were being put up. The course was in great shape and the weather was perfect, which resulted in some really fast races. I had hoped that, because of the ideal racing conditions, the team would respond well and have a good race and the results were mixed.”

Scott Keeney was the top finisher for ISU, as he finished in 119^th place out of 270 runners with a time of 24:42. Scott Koressel was next in 164^th place with a time of 25:05, followed by Eric Schulz in 179^th with a time of 25:16. Randy Placencia (25:30) was next in 198^th place and David Santelik (25:35) rounded out the scoring for ISU in 208^th place. Not figuring into the scoring were Antonio McDaniel (25:41) and Jared Messmann (26:24), who completed the seven-man team in the race for the Sycamores.

“I need to really complement Scott Keeney for a great race,” said McNichols. “I thought he ran very smart and started our conservatively which allowed him to really improve at the tail end of the race. Scott Koressel raced also had a good race for him at this point in the season, but I think both of our top finishers have a lot left in them and they should improve as we head into the conference meet in two weeks.”

Both the men's and women's cross country teams will take next week off in preparation for the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championship on October 27. The race, which will be hosted by Northern Iowa, is scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m.