Sept. 16, 2011
Complete Results | Photo Gallery
EDWARDSVILLE, Ill. - Senior Aftan Noon used a sixth-place finish to lead the SIUE women's cross country team at its only home meet of the season -- the SIUE Cross Country Challenge Friday night.
"I thought the atmosphere was great today," said SIUE Head Coach Eileen McAllister. "It was good weather and everyone was out cheering and yelling."
The Cougars finished the meet with a 2-3 record in dual scoring topping Washington University in St. Louis (23-32) and McKendree (16-47) but fell to Ohio Valley Conference foes Murray State (33-23) and SEMO (36-19) as well as a tight one with Western Illinois (28-27).
Noon navigated the 5,000-meter course in a time of 19 minutes, 24.92 seconds despite not having her best race.
"Aftan stuck to a strategy so she was a little off her time," said McAllister. "She stuck to a strategy we wanted to work out for this race."
Making the most prolific jump into the lineup for the Cougars was Dede Lofton. The Cougar sophomore competed for the first time in an SIUE uniform and turned in an 11th-place finish in a time of 19:39.15.
"We had an outstanding performance by Dede," added McAllister. "She had been working that way in practice, and I told her she could be in our top five."
Sophomore Claire Brown continued her stellar start to the 2011 campaign posting a personal-best time of 19:40.25 to finish 12th while shaving more than 10 seconds off her time from the season opener.
Ioana Citireag placed 21st in a time of 19:58.96 while freshman Ellen Goins ran the course in 20:16.72 to finish 26th.
A trio of SIUE runners finished as a group led by Hannah Lee in 33rd with a time of 20:43.93 followed by Katie Trettenero(20:49.31) and Renee Goodenough (20:54.17) in 35th and 36th, respectively.
Sophomore Megan Petty finished 43rd overall in a time of 21:36.79 and freshman Lacey Hainline made her SIUE debut and finished the 5k in 25:19.68 to place 53rd.
The Cougars will return to action Oct. 1 in Louisville, Ky., at the Greater Louisville Classic.
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