The men’s cross country team placed 12th out of 25 teams Oct. 4 at the Oklahoma State Jamboree.

The Lions placed in front of Division I teams that included the University of Tulsa, Southwest Missouri State University and Texas Tech University, who rounded out the top 15. The only other conference school to place at the Jamboree was Central Missouri State University. CMSU had a total of 448 points. Southern had 320 points. Magnus Holmstrom who placed 36th with a time of 25:18 led the Lions. Craig Rhoads and Paul Koehler were two other Lions who placed within the top 70, 66th and 69th respectively. Rhoads finished in 25:52 and Koehler in 25:56.

“Magnus Holmstrom, Craig Rhoads and Paul Koehler can run with anybody in the nation, in Division II or Division I; they are that good,” said head men’s cross country coach Tom Rutledge. “Our problem right now is like a lot of other people’s problems, we had three great seniors graduate last year. We’re having to fill in our lower part of the team, our four, five and six men, with freshmen and sophomores.”

Rutledge said the team is asking a lot of the underclassmen to help out with a veteran team that has won three straight conference championships.

“I’m having to ask them to do a great deal to pull up and stay up in the hunt,” he said. “For us to win the conference again, we’re going to have to have that fourth and fifth man up in the pack. They know that; we know that; everybody knows that – it isn’t a secret.”

Rutledge said the team has improved since the first meet of the year, but doesn’t know if the team is improving fast enough. He said some of the underclassmen are used to running 60-mile weeks in preparation for 5K races. Now they are running 100-mile weeks in preparation for 8 to 10K races.

“It’s something they have to get used to,” Rutledge said. “It’s like when you’re a freshman in college it’s tough for you to take a senior level course. You feel ‘Well, I’m behind,’ but then as you work up the ladder you’re going to be fine.”

He said cross country training is a learning process, and the athletes who aren’t used to it are learning. In three weeks, the Lions will be racing for the conference championships and looking for a fourpeat.

Before the championships, the team will be heading for the University of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville to participate in the Missouri-Illinois Border War on Saturday.

At the Border War, Southern will see Truman State University run for the first time. It will be an opportunity for the teams to see how the competition for the conference championship is stacking up.

Rutledge said TSU might not run a full team at the Border War, because Southern has a “target on our backs” from winning the championship three years in a row.

“Truman is definitely the team to beat,” he said.

Rutledge said right now most teams in the conference don’t think Southern has a good team. He said it will be interesting to see what teams show up and how each team runs. Two weeks after the Border War, the cross country team heads to Kirksville to try and win a fourth straight MIAA conference championship.