A second place team finish was just what the Bearcat men’s cross country team needed at MSSU this weekend.

SBU claimed runner-up honors out of 31 teams at the Missouri Southern Stampede, losing only to #2 Division I ranked Arkansas.  The Razorbacks, who have won 11 of the last 22 NCAA Division I cross country national titles since 1984, won the meet with 24 points.  More importantly, however, the Bearcats defeated two top-15 nationally ranked teams in Division II, substantiating their first ever top-25 ranking in last week’s USTFCCCA national poll.  SBU’s 132 point total helped them to defeat #7 Harding (3^rd, 146 points) and #15 East Central (5^th, 193 points).  MIAA preseason favorite Missouri Southern (4^th, 151 points) completed the top-5.

The Bearcats again had outstanding performances by T. Jay Sanderson and Michael Pierce.  Sanderson finished 9^th for top-10 honors with a time of 25:13, while Pierce finished only three places behind for a 12^th place in 25:45.  Pierce’s time was over 50 seconds faster than his performance at this meet last year.

For the second week in a row the remaining five Bearcats in the top-7 scoring athletes were freshmen.  Josh Rollins (34^th, 26:39), Jeremy Glassmaker (45^th, 26:51) and Shawn Etzenhouser (48^th, 26:52) comprised the top-5, while Michael McCampbell (67^th, 27:17) and Timmy Specht (100^th, 27:50) helped run up the point totals against other teams with their finishes.

Also competing for the Bearcats this weekend were David Hackney (128^th), Cameron Ayers (148^th), Jesse Kueker (171^st), and Andrew Bly (174^th).  297 athletes completed the men’s college 8k race.

The men will be idle until September 30 when they will travel to Loyola University in Chicago for the Lakefront Invitational.  The Bearcats will look to gain entry into the Gold division of the invitational, where they would compete primarily against Division I and ranked Division II teams.