The Monmouth cross country teams competed in a rare Friday night meet last weekend in Peoria and found evening running to their liking as both squads posted solid marks at the Bradley University Open. The cross country meet featured a 13-school field, including 10 Division I teams, and was run at Detweiller Park in Peoria.

Despite finishing 11th in the team invitational standings, the Fighting Scot women ran the tightest pack race in the history of the program as all seven scoring runners crossed the line within 59 seconds of each other. It marked the first time the women have ever had seven runners finish within a pack split of less than one minute. Junior Gretchen Vandergriff (Wolcott,IN) led the Monmouth women in 51st place with a time of 20:13 over the 5000-meter course. It was Vandergriff=s second-fastest time of her career and the fastest ever recorded by a Monmouth runner on the Detweiller course. The entire Monmouth scoring pack actually turned in the fastest seven course times in team history as the Scots had five women break 21 minutes. Sophomore Jennifer Hoffman (Orland Park,IL) (60th, 20:30) and senior Kathleen Yarger (Belvidere, IL) (65th, 20:34) were the next two Scot finishers and the Monmouth top-five pack posted a team-record 35-second split time when senior Rita McQuinn (Mason City,IL) (71st, 20:44) and sophomore Dara Pagel (Lincoln,IL) (76th, 20:48) crossed the line only seconds later. Senior Carrie Knauer (Strawn,IL) ran 89th in 21:11 and freshman Greta Swanson (Silvis,IL) clocked 21:12 to round out the scoring. Karen Kraus (Belleville,IL) (22:32) and Tammy Schrieber (Elgin,IL) (25:25) also posted career PR times for Monmouth in the women=s race.

Sophomore Jamie Nelson (Monmouth,IL) led the Monmouth men=s team for the second straight week as he finished 21st of 107 runners in a time of 26:46 on the 8000-meter course. Seniors Frank Schweda (Rolling Meadows,IL) (27:03, 29th) and Joel Eckberg (Walnut, IL) (27:07, 30th) and freshman Tony Miles (Moline,IL) (27:30, 40th) gave the Scots a 46-second split between the top four finishers. Senior Matt Clemen (Naples,FL) paced the men=s second pack as he finished 65th in 28:29 and was chased closely by junior Jason Dare (Elmwood,IL) in 70th (28:40) and sophomore Clint LaFary (Green Valley,IL) in 73rd at 28:49.

AThe women ran absolutely the best team race we have ever had in cross country,@ said Monmouth coach Chris Pio. AOur front seven were within a minute of each other the entire race and worked great together in a large field of runners. They will only get closer and better as the season progresses and are running with a great deal of enthusiasm and confidence right now. The men showed very positive improvements from our first race. The second group was able to maintain good internal splits and now needs to close the gap to our front four runners. We will see all of our conference schools in the next few weeks and we hope to see the improvement continue in better individual and team results.@