Peller, Des Roches Lead Cross Country Teams at Pre-Nationals

Oct. 14, 2006

TERRE HAUTE, IND. -

Oct. 14, 2006

TERRE HAUTE, IND. - Led by senior Brent Des Roches and junior Cassie Peller, the men's and women's cross country teams raced to 29th and 16th-place finishes Saturday afternoon at the Pre-NCAA Championships held on the LaVern Gibson Course at the Wabash Valley Family Sports Center in Terre Haute, Ind. Des Roches placed 59th (24:34.3) out of 243 runners, and Peller finished 62nd (21:22.3) of 253.

"This is the largest meet in the country and many nationally ranked teams were competing today," said head coach Dave Ulrich. "The women ran well today and beat a couple ranked teams. On the men's side, we showed, after being placed in the open race, that we were good enough to be in the seeded race. When you go against this level of competition, you want to see how you stack up. We had some good performances today."

Seven Golden Eagles competed on the women's squad, with the top five scoring 439 points on the 6K course. Following Peller were senior Michaela Courtney in 73rd place (21:29.1), senior Heidi Lindeman in 88th (21:39.1), freshman Jayne Grebinki in 90th (21:40.1) and freshman Nicole Burr in 126th (21:58.4). Freshman Amanda Beggs (22.23.0) and junior Kaitlyn Chambers (22:34.2) also competed on the seven-man team, placing 169th and 192nd, respectively.

Running for Marquette in the open race was freshman Anna Weber. She came across the line in a time of 22:38.4.

On the men's side, junior Scott Mueller was the next MU finisher after Des Roches, completing the 8K course in 77th place in a time of 24:44.7. Following him were senior Jeremy Williams in 177th place (25:24.9), sophomore Kyle Saginus in 183rd place (25:29.4), and wrapping up the top five was senior Tommy Schmitz in 213th (25:51.7) for a team total of 709 points. Sophomore Drew Craig (217th, 25:53.9) and junior Josh Pinter (239th, 26:42.9) also competed for the Golden Eagles.

In addition to those seven, sophomores Cody Miles (26:36.2) and Steve Briggs (27:04.2) competed in the open race.

North Carolina State took the team championship on the women's side, scoring 117 points, and Colorado won the men's title with 75 points.

Individually, Julia Lucas of North Carolina State won the women's race in a time of 20:01.4. Martin Fagan of Providence came in first in the men's race in 23:30.3.

Also competing this weekend were juniors Colleen Kuenster and Beth Pollard on the women's side, and freshmen Chris Cebula on the men's, at the UW-Parkside Invite in Kenosha, Wis., at the Wayne E. Dannehl National Cross Country Course. Kuenster covered the 5,000-meter course in 20:06, placing 27th, while Pollard cruised to a 38th-place finish (20:20). Cebula came in 44th place (28:33).

The Golden Eagles will now take a weekend off as they prepare for the BIG EAST Championships in Boston, Mass., Oct. 27.