The Monmouth men=s and women=s cross country teams got a midseason preview of the Midwest Conference competition Saturday at the Beloit College Invitational as nine of the league schools were in action as part of a 19-team field. The Fighting Scots fared well in both divisions with the men placing 7th and the women 8th overall and the runners were able to gauge their positions against MWC challengers. The races were run on a challenging AEnglish-style@ course, complete with a variety of obstacles including two creek crossings and several log and haybale jumps.

The men finished third among MWC schools despite an injury to one of the front-pack runners. Grinnell won the team title with 35 points and St. Norbert placed 6th with 185, only one point better than Monmouth=s total of 186. Senior Frank Schweda (Rolling Meadows,IL/HS) had the highest individual finish of the day, placing 9th of 216 runners in the men=s 8000-meter race. Schweda led the Scots across the line with a time of 27:23 and was joined in the top 25 by teammates Tony Miles (Moline,IL/HS) and Joel Eckberg (Walnut,IL/ HS). Miles, a freshman, raced to a 20th place finish at 27:55 with Eckberg right behind in 22nd place at 27:58. Sophomore Jamie Nelson (Monmouth,IL/HS) sprained an ankle on one of the creek jumps while running in the top 20 after three miles and did not finish for Monmouth, which received scoring efforts from senior Matt Clemen (Naples,FL/Cascade) (59th, 28:59) and junior Jason Dare (Elmwood,IL/Farmington) (96th, 29:55).

The women posted another outstanding team effort but their performance against MWC teams was hampered by the lack of a low scoring number. Monmouth finished fifth among the conference schools with senior Carrie Knauer (Strawn,IL/Prairie Central) leading the way in 24th place. Knauer finished the 5000-meter course in 20:56 and paced a team-record 33-second pack split between the first five Fighting Scot runners. Senior Kathleen Yarger (Belvidere,IL/HS) was next across the line in 21:12 for 35th place and the Monmouth scoring was quickly completed when three Scots crossed in succession seconds later. Gretchen Vandergriff (Wolcott,IN/Greenwood) (21:28), Dara Pagel (Lincoln,IL/HS) (21:29) and Rita McQuinn (Mason City,IL/Illini Central) (21:29) finished 42-43-44 to give the team its tightest pack performance in history. The Scots= top seven was rounded out by sophomore Jennifer Hoffman (Orland Park,IL/ Sandburg) in 60th place at 22:11 and freshman Greta Swanson (Silvis,IL/East Moline) in 68th place at 22:28.

AOur performance on the women=s side was a confirmation of our team depth and pack running but we were hurt up front by some of the conference competition,@ said Monmouth coach Chris Pio. AHowever, we are now aware of who we need to focus on in practice over the next few weeks if we are to place higher at the conference championships. The men ran well on a tough course and Nelson=s injury certainly hurt our team effort. If he finishes the race we would have been third instead of seventh, so we know we are a better team than the final standings show.@