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Cross Country Team Showing Strength
CHICAGO, IL (October 17, 2005) - The Viking women's cross country team
continued its successful season on Friday when it earned second place at
the Millikin Classic, in Forsyth, Illinois. The team narrowly missed
first place by seven points, trailing only NCAA Division II Southern
Illinois Edwardsville 69-76.
Junior Shannon McInnis ran a personal best of 23:21 to place fifth.
Senior Becky Gritter placed 14th with a time of 24:41. Seniors Kari
Thompson and Allison Weller narrowly missed the top 15 placing 17th and
22nd, with times of 25:00 and 25:24. Freshman Tiffany Schwartz rounded
out the top 5 placing 44th with a time of 26:53. Other North Park
University finishers were Freshman Laura Papageorgiou (79th 30:16) and
Junior Amy Peters (103rd 35:18).
"This was an important meet to continue to build our confidence for
conference and regionals," said head coach Tracey Murnane. "We did not
run what we are capable of in terms of times, but in cross country it is
place, not times that matter."
The Lady Vikings will take next week off to fine tune before the CCIW
Cross Country Championship race in Davenport, Iowa, on October 29. The
women's 6k race begins at noon, the men's 8k race starts at 12:45 p.m.
and the co-ed open race is set to kick off at 1:30 p.m.
The Viking Men finished 14th (401 points) out of the 19 schools
represented at the same meet. North Park individual finishers for the 8K
race included senior and team-captain Luke Johnson, who ran 31:13 to
lead the Vikings; sophomore Marcus Simmons, who ran one of his best
races of the year with 32:27; and first-year runner Sidney Dichoso, who
sprinted in for 32:29. Also running strong races were Anthony King and
Daniel Michel to finish in 34:49 and 34:58 respectively. Other North
Park finishers included Joel Ylagan, 36:02; Weston Gleffe, 39:15; and
Matt Cappetta, with a season best at 39:35. The men also will race in
the CCIW Cross Country Championship.
In other sports news:
- The Viking football team was able to keep pace with Millikin for
much of Saturday's high-scoring game, but a touchdown late in the fourth
quarter proved enough for Millikin to defeat North Park 31-24. The score
was tied going into the final quarter, but Millikin (4-2, 1-2) broke the
tie when it scored a touchdown and extra point with only 2:11 left in
the game.
The Vikings (3-3, 0-3) scored three touchdowns through the air.
Quarterback Mike Haehn connected with Brandon Watts to cap a 10-play,
59-yard drive in the first quarter. After Brandon Watts gave the Vikings
excellent field position on a punt return to the Millikin 31, Haehn took
only one play to find Sherman Gant for a touchdown. The Vikings scored
their final touchdown in the second quarter, when they capitalized on a
fumble recovery by Mujahid Aziz at the Millikin 32. Thirty seconds
later, Watts hit Gant to put up six points. The Vikings final score came
in the third quarter when new kicker Scott Bullock knocked in a 30-yard
field goal. In addition to the field goal, Bullock was successful in all
three extra-point attempts.
The Vikings ran for 122 yards on 30 carries. Haehn carried the ball
nearly half the time 14 attempts – for 74 yards to lead the team in
carries and yardage. North Park totaled 174 yards in the air. Gant led
all receivers, with five for 101 yards. The Vikings were playing without
the services of star receiver Jon Harris, who was injured in the first
quarter of the last week's Elmhurst game. Jerwane Ford led the defense
with 10 tackles.
- The Viking men's soccer team fell to Augustana 3-2 in an evenly
fought match Saturday. Augustana scored two goals in the first half, one
each by Colin Nolan and Marcus Harris. North Park was able to cut the
lead to 2-1 with a penalty kick at 36:26. Nolan scored in the second
half to increase Augustana's lead to 3-1. P.J. Eriksson continued his
strong season, when he scored an unassisted goal at 63:20 to cut the
lead to 3-2. North Park edged Augustana in shot taken 16-15 an in corner
kicks 3-1. Augustana improves to 9-3-1 overall and 3-2 in the CCIW,
while North Park fell to 5-6-1 and 3-1-1. North Park still is in second
place behind Elmhurst.
- The women's soccer team ran into a surging Augustana team Saturday
at Erikson Field, losing 2-0 in a College Conference of Illinois &
Wisconsin defeat. Augustana's defense has proved almost invincible
recently, recording its sixth straight shutout. Augustana improved to
11-3-0 overall and 3-2-0 in the CCIW. North Park is now 8-6-1 and 1-4-0.
- After two and a half hours of play, only two points separated the
North Park volleyball team and Judson. They were enough, however, for
the Vikings to claim a 3-2 match victory with a final score of 15-13 in
the deciding game on Wednesday. The non-conference match was about as
close as possible (22-30, 32-30, 30-24, 26-30, 15-13). The Vikings
benefited from stellar performances by Shannon Zoll, who recorded 17
kills, and Lindsay Reh, who notched 11. Defensive specialist Dana Wilson
again led the team in digs with 33.
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