November 9, 1998
CROSS COUNTRY TEAMS FINISH 7th, 9th AT MWC CHAMPIONSHIPS
BELOIT, WI -- Senior Gretchen Vandergriff (Wolcott,IN/Greenwood) and sophomore Tony Miles (Moline,IL/Moline) were the first individual finishers for the Monmouth women’s and men’s cross country teams as the Fighting Scots competed in the 1998 Midwest Conference Championships this past weekend at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin. The meet drew entries from all ten MWC league schools and was run on Beloit’s modified English-style course, which featured two creek crossings. No Monmouth runners earned All-Conference medals, which were presented to the top 15 finishers in each race.
Vandergriff, who had placed 12th last year as a junior, finished 20th in the women’s 5000-meter race. Her time of 20:41 was one of her best efforts of the season. Junior Dara Pagel (Lincoln, IL/Lincoln) (44th overall, 42nd adjusted scoring) and freshman Christina Barbic (Antioch,IL/ Antioch) (48th overall, 45th adjusted) were the next two Scots to finish. Only three seconds separated the two runners, Pagel clocking 21:50 and Barbic 21:53. Junior Ann Moody (Yates City,IL/Farmington) finished in 64th (53rd adjusted) at 22:43 and senior Tammy Schrieber (Elgin,IL/Burlington Central) in 92nd (59th adjusted) in a time of 26:26 to round out the team’s scorers. Monmouth placed ninth as a team (219 points) as the host Beloit Buccaneers won their first-ever MWC women’s team title with 41 points. Sophomore Julie Liebich of Lawrence won the individual title, covering the course in 18:39.
Miles duplicated his 17th-place finish from his freshman season to lead the men’s team to a 7th-place effort. Miles dropped his PR time for the Beloit course to 27:43 but just missed cracking the top 15. Freshman Charlie Sunderlage (Burlington,IL/ Central) came through with a big career PR performance of 28:18, good enough for 28th place, and sophomore Ken Williams (St. Louis,MO/ Edwardsville) was the team’s third runner, finishing in 42nd place (41st adjusted) at 29:24. Junior Sam Watkins (Aledo,IL/Aledo) crossed the line in 31:47 for 69th place (51st adjusted) and classmate Derek Cisel (Elmwood,IL/Elmwood), despite running with an injury, finished in 33:23 (77th overall, 56th adjusted) to complete the team effort. Grinnell won the men’s team title with 43 points and Beloit sophomore Zac Freudenburg won individual honors on his home course, finishing the 8000-meter race in 25:42.
"Our team places were a bit disappointing compared to what we have done in recent years," said Monmouth coach Chris Pio. "It has been a truly tough season due to small numbers, some nagging injuries and outside distractions. I just asked our runners to be competitive and they came through with very representative races. This has been a difficult season but now we have some incentive to work harder for next year."