The Monmouth men=s and women=s cross country teams traveled to the Elmhurst College Invitational last Saturday to start their 1997 fall schedule and returned with some encouraging individual and team performances. The meet featured entries from 17 schools and was run at Eldridge Park in suburban Elmhurst, Illinois.

The Fighting Scots finished 3rd in the men=s division as a mere ten points separated the top three teams. Despite having three of the first 12 finishers, Monmouth (72 points) was edged by Elmhurst (62) and Illinois Wesleyan (71). Zac Freudenburg of Beloit won the individual title with a time of 16:26 on the 5000-meter course while sophomore Jamie Nelson (Monmouth,IL) was the first Scot across the line. Nelson=s time of 16:55 was good for 5th place in the 130-man field. Seniors Frank Schweda (Rolling Meadows,IL) (17:12, 10th) and Joel Eckberg (Walnut, IL) (17:16, 13th) also earned individual awards with freshman Tony Miles (Moline,IL) close behind in 17:29 for 17th place. Senior Matt Clemen (Naples,FL) finished 28th in 18:04 and junior Jason Dare (Elmwood,IL) 30th (18:07) to give the Scots a split time of 1:12 between their front six.

The Monmouth women turned in an even better pack time split but could only manage a 7th-place finish in a competitive 17-team field. Elmhurst won the competition with 60 points and Wheaton placed second with 70. Beloit=s Bridget Wiedel set a new 2-mile course record of 12:03 to win the individual title as senior Kathleen Yarger (Belvidere,IL) led the Monmouth effort in 29th place (13:18). The Scots= middle runners finished in a tight pack as sophomore Dara Pagel (Lincoln,IL) (35th, 13:30), senior Rita McQuinn (Mason City,IL) (36th, 13;31) and junior Gretchen Vandergriff (Wolcott,IN) (37th, 13:32) crossed the line only two seconds apart and the team=s fifth runner, sophomore Jennifer Hoffman (Orland Park,IL), followed closely in 42nd place in 13:41 to make the top-five split an impressive 23 seconds. Sophomore Ann Moody (Yates City, IL) finished 50th in 13:53 and senior Carrie Knauer (Strawn,IL) ran 57th in 14:02 for a 44-second split time between the seven scoring runners.

ABoth teams started with encouraging efforts to set a foundation for the rest of the season,@ said Monmouth coach Chris Pio. AWe were able to run well off two good quality weeks of training. The women controlled their tempo throughout the entire race and proved that we have a very balanced team which will be able to work well together. The men split up sooner than we would like, so we will need to work on the pack concept over the next few weeks to see improvement. This was our first race and our runners will only get more confident and aggressive over the next few weeks.@