Oct. 1, 2011
Complete Results
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- One cancelled meet later and the Missouri State cross country was back in action after a month-long hiatus. The Bears, who were running in just their second meet of the year, took home the top team honors in the blue race (5k) at the 10th Annual Greater Louisville Classic on Saturday at E.P. ‘Tom’ Sawyer State Park.
The entire field, which consisted of a gold, blue and silver race, featured 96 college and universities and more than 2,000 student athletes. Missouri State won the women’s blue race with 38 points, while South Alabama was second at 125, followed by Murray State with 165 points. The Bears were the only squad in the 32-team field to place multiple runners in the top-10 with four.
“I am speechless,” head cross country coach Alick Musukuma said. “We haven’t competed for a month so I am excited that they competed so well against teams that may have run in three or four meets before today.”
Leading the charge for the Bears was senior Terry Phillips and junior Emily Beaver, who finished first and second overall with times of 17:52.46 and 18:02.45 respectively.
Also cracking the top-10 were freshman Emma Burditt and sophomore Erin Edwards. Burditt navigated the course in 18:18.76 and placed sixth overall. Her time was 35 seconds faster than her personal best in the 5K at Hannbial High School last year. Sophomore Erin Edwards finished closely behind the freshman in ninth with a time of 18:23.63.
Rounding out the MSU scorers was freshman Dana Roberson, who finished 20th overall in 18:41.12.
Other Missouri Valley schools in the blue race included seventh-place Evansville and 14th-place Creighton.
Missouri State will travel southwest to Fayetteville, Ark., for the Chile Pepper Festival (6K). The invitational hosted by the University of Arkansas will be the last tune-up meet before the Bears head to Terre Haute, Ind., for the Missouri Valley Conference Cross Country Championships at the end of the month.
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