Women's Cross Country wins third MIAA title in a row/Shank MIAA Champion

Women's Results | Men's Results

Warrensburg, Mo. -- The Missouri Southern women's cross country team won its third straight MIAA title and Kimi Shank (Rolla, Mo.) picked up her first MIAA Individual Championship at the 2008 MIAA Cross Country Championships today hosted by the University of Central Missouri.

The Southern men finished third overall and junior Brennan Benkert (St. Clair, Mo.) was second individually.

Shank led a cast of Southern runners that had three finish in the top ten with senior Kara Eckard (Warrensburg, Mo.) and junior Courtney Waltbillig finishing 7th and 8th, respectively to join Shank as All-MIAA performers. Shank finished the 6k course with a time of 21:54.14 and was 46 seconds in front of her nearest competition.

Sophomore Silvia Pineda (Monett, Mo.) was 11th, while sophomore Victoria Kline (Miami, Okla.) and senior Kari Fritchie (Lees Summit, Mo.) finished 15th and 16th to earn honorable mention All-MIAA status. Sophomore Olga Bulgarova (Jefferson City, Mo.) finished 23rd.

Southern had 42 points and finished 30 points ahead of second place Pittsburg State. Southwest Baptist was third, while Truman, Fort Hays, Central Missouri, Emporia State, Northwest Missouri and Nebraska-Omaha round out the nine team scores.

Benkert finished eight seconds out of first, placing second with a time of 25:36.07 over the 8k course to earn All-MIAA honors. Redshirt freshman Jarrko Jarvenpaa (Tampere, Finland) and Aki Nummela (Helsinki, Finland) were 12th and 13th, respectively and freshman Chris Bell (Branson, Mo.) was 20th to earn honorable mention All-MIAA honors. Freshmen Deric Kimrey (Lebanon, Mo.) and Derek Mendell (Carthage, Mo.) were 40th and 42nd, respectively, while junior Derek Wright finished 63rd.

Southwest Baptist picked up the men's team title with 63 points as four of its top five finishers were in the top 20. Pittsburg State's MJ Hassaballa picked up the individual title and helped the Gorillas finish two points in front of Southern. Fort Hays was fourth, followed by Truman, Central Missouri, Emporia State and Northwest Missouri.

Both the men's and women's squads will now head to San Antonio, Texas on November 8 to compete in the NCAA Division II South Central Region meet.