By Tyler Wooten
GoSycamores.com

ST. LOUIS – Sycamore All-American senior John Mascari has been named the Missouri Valley Conference Male Cross Country Athlete of the Week, the Valley announced Tuesday afternoon.

Mascari, recently picked to finish fifth at the national meet by Track and Field News and as a potential national title contender by the USTFCCCA, won his first race of 2015 last Saturday at the Evansville Early Bird Invite. Despite extremely hot conditions, Mascari ran a smooth 24:48.7 in the 8K to beat out Louisville's Japhet Kipkoech by nine seconds for the win.

This was Mascari's first action since suffering a back injury during the 2015 outdoor track season, during which he broke the all-time MVC 10K record but had to miss the national meet due to his injury.

Mascari led a contingent of five Sycamores that finished in the top-10 en route to a second-place team finish behind Louisville by five points, who was ranked seventh in the tough Southeast region entering last week.

Next up for both the Sycamore men and women is the Indiana Intercollegiate meet, which will be held in Terre Haute on Sept. 18.

For the latest information on the Sycamore Track and Field team, make sure to check out GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook and Twitter.