ST. LOUIS, Mo. ? Indiana State sophomores Kayla Alexander and Randy Placencia were the top finishers for the Sycamores last Friday at the Indiana Intercollegiates hosted by Purdue and their performances did not go unnoticed, as they were named the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Female and Male Cross Country Athletes of the Week by the conference office on Tuesday.
The weekly honor is the first for both Alexander and Placencia. Last week, ISU sophomore Scott Koressel earned the weekly award, giving the Sycamores two-straight nods on the men's side.
Alexander continues to have a standout season for the ISU women's squad, as she was the team's top finisher for the second-straight week. The Terre Haute, Ind., native was the only ISU runner in the top 10 at Purdue, as she ran to a personal-best time of 17:54.52 and finished in fourth place out of 162 runners in the women's 5k race. That performance propelled Alexander into the top 10 all time at ISU, ranking as the tenth-best time in the history of the women's cross country program.
“Kayla has worked extremely hard to get to the level she is at right now,” said women's head coach John Gartland. “It's great to see that the Valley has recognized her for all the hard work she's put in and for her accomplishments so far this season. I'm excited to see how she does in the upcoming meets and just hope she continues to improve on her impressive start.”
Placencia's third-place finish helped the Sycamores to their third-straight team victory at the Indiana Intercollegiates. His time of 25:00.70 in the 8k race set a new personal best, as he finished just behind Indiana's Jordan Kyle (24:39.34) and Southern Indiana's Paul Jellema (24:53.13) in first and second place, respectively. The Garrett, Ind., native helped ISU, who entered the race as the No. 10 ranked team in the Great Lakes Region, edge out Indiana, the No. 8 ranked team in the region, by eight points to finish first out of 23 teams.
“Randy opened his season with a very strong race last weekend,” said men's head coach John McNichols. “He feels like he could have finished stronger in the race, but that's him just second-guessing himself. His performance was really what the team needed to beat teams like Indiana, Purdue and Butler and I look forward to seeing how he performs in the next couple races for us.”
After taking a week off, the Sycamores will return to action on September 28 at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind. Race time is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
