Southeast runners sweep SIUE Cross County Challenge

Southeast Missouri State swept Friday's SIU Edwardsville Cross Country Challenge as Craig Munie and Rebekah Lawson captured individual titles.

Eight teams competed in each division, with Southeast, host SIUE and Western Illinois representing the Division I entrants.

Southeast's women have finished first in both their meets this year, while the men also own a second-place performance.

"Both teams ran exceptionally well today," Southeast coach Ryan Lane said in a release. "I thought we made a big improvement from two weeks ago and I am excited to see what we can do at our bigger meets later in the season."

Southeast's women scored 20 points to finish well ahead of runner-up SIUE (65) and third-place Bellarmine (67).

Southeast's men had 36 points to also place ahead of runner-up SIUE (48) and third-place Bellarmine (65).

Lawson won her second race of the season with a time of 17 minutes, 59 seconds over the 5K course.

Five other Redhawks turned in top-10 times: Angela Sumner (second, 18:26), Madalyn Stichnot (fourth, 19:01), Central graduate Mary Dohogne (fifth, 19:05), Scott City graduate Melanie Lacey (eighth, 19:14) and Central graduate Laura Chavez (ninth, 19:15).

Jackson graduate Lindsey Seabaugh (11th, 19:23), Megan Parks (12th, 19:26), Maria Trowbridge (22nd, 20:18) and Madeline Gaul (38th, 23:04) rounded out Southeast's female runners.

Munie clocked 25:14 in the 8K men's race.

Charles Johnson (fourth, 25:52), Ryan Anderson (ninth 26:23) and Shane Brown (10th, 26:28) also placed in the top 10.

Marc Maton (12th, 26:34), Tyler Holmes (15th, 26:44), Colten Strotheide (24th, 27:21), Andrew Gordon (28th, 27:56), Jackson graduate Tyson Stoverink (29th, 28:07), Sean Brown (39th, 28:51) and Notre Dame graduate Cole Ross (46th, 30:20) also competed.

Southeast runners are back in action Saturday at the Saluki Invitational in Carbondale, Ill.

Volleyball

Southeast went 1-2 over the weekend against rugged competition to finish third at the Sports Imports DC Koehl Classic hosted by Ohio State.

The Redhawks (5-4) lost to Xavier 27-25, 21-25, 25-20, 25-12 Friday, then Saturday fell to 13th-ranked Ohio State 25-12, 20-25, 25-19, 25-13 and rallied past IUPUI 24-26, 10-25, 25-18, 25-22, 15-13.

Colleen Yarber, who was named to the all-tournament team, had a season-high 20 kills and a career-high 28 digs against IUPUI. Andrea Baylin had a season-high 15 kills and added 16 digs while Emily Coon posted 11 kills and six blocks.

Julie Shives recorded 56 assists and 17 digs, Berkley Idel tied a career high with 29 digs and Jade Mortimer added 19 digs.

"I am very proud of the leadership that was displayed today," Southeast coach Julie Yankus said in a release. "Being down 0-2 in our match against IUPUI is a very hard deficit to come back from. Our upperclassmen, especially, really stepped up and played aggressive. They played to win."

Yarber had eight kills and 10 digs against Ohio State. Idel had 17 digs, Taylor Masterson recorded seven blocks and Meredith Stranges posted a career-high five blocks, the same total as Coon.

Yarber and Coon led in kills against Xavier with 15 and 14, respectively. Shives posted 42 assists and 11 digs. Idel had 16 digs and Baylin added 10 digs.

Southeast, which has played its first nine matches away from Cape Girardeau, finally has its first home contest Wednesday when UMKC visits Houck Field House at 6:30 p.m.

Soccer

Southeast remained winless with Friday's 4-0 loss at two-time defending Missouri Valley Conference champion Illinois State.

The Redhawks fell to 0-4-1 as they have been outscored 14-1. ISU improved to 3-4.

ISU, which led 3-0 at halftime, got three goals from two-time MVC player of the year Rachel Tejada, who has five goals on the season.

Southeast was outshot 19-5, including 11-2 in shots on goal, and the Redbirds had a 5-0 edge in corner kicks.

Senior Ashton Aubuchon allowed all four goals while playing the first 66 minutes in the nets. She recorded six saves.

Freshman Lauren Meyer posted one save over the final 24 minutes in goal.

"We played an excellent team today. Illinois State has won two straight conference titles for a reason and they made us pay for our mistakes," Southeast coach Heather Nelson said in a release. "I set a challenging schedule for our young team and we are gaining valuable experience against a number of quality opponents.

"Our team is working extremely hard from week to week and we're focused on growing as quickly as possible to be ready for [Ohio Valley Conference] play. We are disappointed in the result, but there were positive strides taken in today's performance."

The Redhawks close out their two-game weekend road swing today with a 1 p.m. contest at Drake (0-5-2) in a battle of winless squads.

-- From staff reports