TERRE HAUTE, Ind. ? The 2007 cross country season came to an end on Saturday for the Indiana State men's and women's cross country teams, as the Sycamores ran to 11th and 20th places, respectively, at the Great Lakes Regional meet hosted by Indiana University at the Indiana Cross Country Championship Course.
The men took the course first and opened the day with the 10k race, where the Sycamores ran to an 11th place finish (319 points) overall out of 30 teams. The Sycamores head into the race as the No. 12 ranked team in the region, after previously being ranked as high as eighth in the region. Four teams nationally-ranked teams by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA) were entered in the race and two tied for the regional title, as No. 4 Wisconsin and No. 23 Michigan each earned 68 team points to earn the automatic bids to the NCAA Championships. No. 22 Notre Dame, led by race winner Patrick Smyth, finished in third with 76 points followed Indiana (111) and No. 30 Ohio State (167) to round out the top five.
“I think we ran strong today as a team and the 11th place finish is respectible,” said ISU men's head coach John McNichols. “The finish was not as high as I had hoped it would be, but we beat some teams ranked ahead of us in the region and the teams at the top were extremely good today. Wisconsin, Michigan and Notre Dame all had very strong races and we were with Indiana at the mid-way point before they pulled ahead of us.”
ISU was led by sophomore Randy Placencia, who finished in 42nd place overall with a time of 31:55.28. Fellow sophomore Scott Keeney was next in 51st place with a time of 32:17.82, meaning the Sycamores will have their top two finishers back as juniors next year. Senior Antonio McDaniel was next in 65th place (32:38.28), followed by freshman Michael Disher in 77th (32:55.26) and senior David Santelik in 84th (33:02.23) to round out the scoring for ISU.
“Randy and Scott were both in very good position for most of the race, but both had trouble sustaining it in the end,” said McNichols. “But, I think with some tweaks in their training both will get even better and give us a solid team next season. Our seniors (McDaniel and Santelik) also really stepped it up today and came through for us in their last races.”
On the women's side, the Sycamores finished in 20th overall with a team score of 516 in the 6k race. No. 8 ranked Michigan State took home the regional title with a team score of 60, just three points ahead of fellow Big Ten Conference foe and No. 9 ranked Michigan in second place (63) to earn the automatic bids. No. 23 Wisconsin lived up to expectations and finished in third place with 93 points, followed by Marquette (192) and Butler (220) to round out the top five.
“I was very disappointed with our finish today as a team and it's the lowest we've ever finished as a team at the regional meet,” said ISU women's head coach John Gartland. “I thought our individual performances were very good, but we just didn't have enough as a team to compete against the high level of competition in the race.”
Sophomore Kayla Alexander once again finished at the top for the Sycamores, as the Terre Haute native finished in 48th overall with a time of 22:16.98. Senior Karla Negron finished her Indiana State career with another strong finish in 82nd with a time of 23:01.77. Sophomore Adriane Wunderlich was next for ISU in 125th place (23:36.23), followed by juniors Julia Costello in 129th (23:40.46) and Heather Stembridge in 132nd (23:43.84) to round out the scoring.
“Just like she has all season, Kayla ran a very strong race today and she should be very pleased with her finish,” said Gartland. “Also, Karla really came on strong in the last couple of races and she wrapped up her career well today with her finish as well.”
