The Fighting Scot men=s and women=s cross country teams ran against their best Division III competition of the season on Saturday at the Grinnell-Les Duke Invitational and both Monmouth squads finished in the middle of the team standings. The women carried the team banner on Saturday, finishing 8th of 13 complete teams and only 15 points out of 5th place. The men=s squad, which was missing some of its front-pack runners, placed 10th of 15 full teams.

Senior Frank Schweda (Rolling Meadows,IL/HS) had the highest Monmouth individual finish of the day, placing 32nd of 237 runners in the men=s 8000-meter race. Schweda led the Scots across the line with a time of 27:44 on the rolling Oakland Acres Golf Course on a very windy day. Classmates Joel Eckberg (Walnut, IL/HS) and Matt Clemen (Naples,FL/Cascade) ran 28:31 (59th) and 29:12 (95th), respectively, as the team=s second and third finishers. Junior Jason Dare (Elmwood,IL/Farmington) (118, 29:49) and freshman Tony Miles (Moline,IL/HS) (121, 29:51) rounded out the Monmouth front five with two more underclassman runners in the Scots= 6th and 7th spots. Sophomore Derek Cisel (Elmwood,IL/HS) and freshman Ken Williams (Edwardsville,IL/HS) finished the race together in 31:08 and 31:09 to close the Scots= scoring.

In the women=s 5000-meter race, junior Gretchen Vandergriff (Wolcott,IN/Greenwood) paced the Monmouth effort for the second straight week. Vandergriff led another tight Fighting Scot women=s pack in 35th place in a time of 20:49. Seniors Carrie Knauer (Strawn,IL/Prairie Central) (52, 21:08) and Rita McQuinn (Mason City,IL/Illini Central) (56, 21:18) finished within ten seconds of each other and were followed by sophomores Dara Pagel (Lincoln,IL/HS) (60, 21:22) and Jennifer Hoffman (Orland Park, IL/Sandburg) (67, 21:34) as the top five Scots finishers entered the chute only 45 seconds apart. Monmouth's 1-7 split was a mere 1:24 as senior Kathleen Yarger (Belvidere,IL/HS) and freshman Greta Swanson (Silvis,IL/East Moline) ran 21:49 (78th) and 22:12 (86th), respectively.

AOur women were able to run another fairly tight team race against a large and very talented field,@ said Monmouth coach Chris Pio. AThe low split times continue to be a good indication of our team depth and now we have to move up our front pack runners into scoring contention. The men=s team was shorthanded and some of our runners did not execute very well after a tough training week. We now know what we need to work on over the next few weeks to close on some of our conference competition. The conference meet will be run on the exact same course in November, so both teams gained some valuable racing experience on the course.@