Kansas Cross Country Travels Across the Border for Missouri XC Challenge

Sept. 11, 2008

LAWRENCE, Kan. – Border Showdown, cross country style, takes place Saturday as the Kansas cross country teams travels to Columbia, Mo., for the Missouri Cross Country Challenge.

“We will definitely have more competition this week,” KU head coach Stanley Redwine said. “I think it will be really good on both the men’s and women’s side. Anytime you race a Big 12 school, you’re always encouraged to want to do a little bit better. In addition to that, our athletes have been training and they’re in a little bit better shape. We want to definitely keep the pack tight and run well. We’ll see how we fare with more competition.”

Racing against the Jayhawks at A.L. Gustin Golf Course will be host Missouri, Murray State and Lincoln University. The men’s race will be 8K, while the women’s race covers 5K.

Both the KU men and women are coming off victories at the Bob Timmons Classic at Rim Rock Farm two weeks ago, and they look to continue that success this weekend.

Running for the women’s team, who put together a perfect score of 15 at the Bob Timmons, will be senior Megan James, juniors Lauren Bonds, Alison Knoll and Kellie Schneider, sophomores Kaitlyn Coen, Claire Hall, Amanda Miller and Riley Wertenberger, redshirt freshman Kara Windisch, and freshmen Amanda Akin, Laura Nightengale, Lindsay Schaefer, Rebeka Stowe and Devin Wiegers.

Bonds and Miller led the KU women at Rim Rock Farm, finishing first and second, respectively.

Competing for the men at Missouri will be senior Brock Ternes, juniors Levi Huseman, Bret Imgrund and Isaiah Shirlen, sophomores Nick Caprario and Dan Van Orsdel, redshirt freshman Clay Schneider, and freshmen Austin Bussing, Kaleb Humphreys, Don Wasinger and Zach Zarda.

Wasinger led the Jayhawk men with a fifth-place finish at the Bob Timmons Classic.

“All of them are doing better,” Coach Redwine said. “Our first person is just as important to us as our fifth. The goal is to have our fifth person as close to our first person as we possibly can. Individually, I don’t know who that person is going to be because in any one race people can compete differently than they do in practice, so it’s very hard to name one person.”

The Missouri Cross Country Challenge is the second of four regular season races before the Big 12 Championships in Ames, Iowa, on Nov. 1. Redwine said the goal is to get better each and every week leading up to the postseason.

“This is still a 5K race for the women, and we definitely need to be prepared to run a 6K, so we’re training to be able to do that,” Redwine said. “Same with the men, this is an 8K race and at the end of the season we’ll be running 10K. So as our endurance gets better, we’ll be able to compete better at the end of the season.”

The men’s race kicks off the action Saturday at 10:00 a.m. CDT, and the women’s race follows shortly thereafter, beginning at 10:40 a.m. CDT.