October 24, 1998

MONMOUTH,IL -- The Monmouth women’s cross country team kept its home-meet trophy streak intact with a fourth-place team finish at last weekend’s Division III Illinois State Cross Country Meet while the men saw a similar eight-year string come to an end. It was the fifth straight year that the women have finished among the top four teams at the Fighting Scots’ only home cross country race of the fall season. Along with four team awards, All-State medals were presented to the top 20 individual runners in each race. The State Meet, open to all Division III teams in Illinois, was held once again at Monmouth City Park in Monmouth.

The Fighting Scot women were paced for the second meet in a row by senior Gretchen Vandergriff (Wolcott,IN/Greenwood), who is running well after struggling early in the season. With her top-20 finish Vandergriff became only the second four-time All-State medalist in team history. She placed 13th in Saturday’s race with a time of 20:02 on the three-mile course and was followed closely by junior Ann Moody (Yates City,IL/Farmington). Moody earned her second All-State honor by placing 16th with a final time of 20:30. Junior Dara Pagel (Lincoln,IL/Lincoln) was the Scots’ third finisher, crossing the line in 21:03 in 25th place. Freshman Christina Barbic (Antioch,IL/ Antioch) and senior Tammy Schrieber (Elgin,IL/Burlington Central) were the team’s fourth and fifth runners, posting times of 22:00 (30th place) and 26:48 (32nd place), respectively.

Monmouth placed 4th with 116 points as Augustana College, behind the individual victory of senior All-American Susan Paige (18:01), claimed team honors. Elmhurst (59) and Knox (73) rounded out the trophy teams. The Monmouth men team finished 5th in the team standings to miss out on a trophy for the first time since 1990. Elmhurst College defended its 1997 team championship by placing all seven scoring runners in the top 14 finishers, scoring 30 points and an easy victory. Illinois Wesleyan (55), North Central (62) and Knox (90) also earned team trophies.

Tony Miles (Moline,IL/Moline) was the lone All-State men’s medalist for Monmouth as the sophomore placed 12th in a time of 27:45 on the Scots’ five-mile course. Miles, who was 15th last fall as a freshman, earned his second individual State Meet medal. The squad’s other four scoring runners took places 30 through 33, led by freshman Charlie Sunderlage (Burlington,IL/ Central) who finished in a time of 29:56. He was followed by sophomore Ken Williams (St. Louis,MO/ Edwardsville) in 30:25. Junior Jamie Nelson (Monmouth,IL/Monmouth), running his first race in seven weeks since suffering an injury the first week of the season, finished the race in 31:54. Nelson was four seconds ahead of classmate Sam Watkins (Aledo,IL/Aledo), who crossed the line in 31:58 to close out the Scots’ team effort.

"We had some good efforts and some average races," said Monmouth coach Chris Pio. "Our runners did not take full advantage of the home course but hopefully we can rebound with a strong effort at the Midwest Conference Meet in two weeks." After a week off the Scots will travel to Beloit, Wisconsin for the MWC Championships on November 7th.