Hoosiers produce top 5 showings at Big Ten meet

Being on his feet all day and coming to practice to run for miles used to concern senior Chad Andrews about his performance for the IU men's cross country team.\n"I'm just glad to be done with student teaching and back in the mix, racing up front," he said.\nAndrews, an education major, just completed his student teaching, which caused his schedule to be a little awkward. \nThe senior posted IU's best men's finish at the 2003 Big Ten Cross Country Championships at Michigan State University, helping propel the Hoosiers to a third place finish in the Big Ten. His time of 24:31 placed him ninth, just in front of fellow senior Chris Powers, who was two seconds back in 10th.\n"I started hurting around 4K, halfway into the race, and from there I had to will myself through it," said Powers, nursing a minor illness.\nA pair running strategy propelled the No. 19 Hoosiers into third place ahead of rival No. 7 Ohio State. IU's second pair, sophomores Eric Redman and Sean Jefferson finished 19th and 21st, respectively. Junior Tom Burns closed up the men's team score in 31st. Sophomore Charlie Koeppen followed in 32nd, sophomore Stephen Haas in 36th, senior Nathan Gooden came in 40th, and freshman Marcus Aguilar was 65th. Wisconsin sophomore Simon Bairu won the men's race in 23:58, and his team took the team victory.\nWidely predicted to finish fourth, the men were glad to get past Ohio State but said they feel they still have not put together the kind of race they are capable of.\n"The guys found the sand to get after it today," said men's coach Robert Chapman said. "Once we get a couple of them back on track, we'll be ready to roll." \nThe women's team also competed Sunday in East Lansing and finished fourth overall. Hobbled by injuries all season, they came into the race unsure of how they compared to the rest of the conference.\n"I honestly didn't think we would finish higher than fifth," coach Judy Wilson said after the race. "To finish fourth and beat Wisconsin helps us for later since they have some wins over some good teams." \nSenior Audrey Giesler led the team with a ninth place finish at 21:22, which earned her second team All-Big Ten honors. IU sophomore Kelly Siefker led the Hoosier pack in 31st, followed by junior Mindy Peterson in 35th, sophomore Larra Overton in 44th, freshman Kristin Whitezell in 48th, junior Julie Shields in 58th, junior Heidi Crowley in 67th and sophomore Allison Miller in 83rd. Given the early season losses of top runners senior Becky Obrecht and sophomores Lindsay Hattendorf and Jessica Gall, the women performed above expectation.\nBoth squads will be back in action in two weeks at the Great Lakes Regional meet in Terre Haute. The meet serves as the qualifying round to the NCAA Championships in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the Monday before Thanksgiving.\n"We have got two more weeks before districts, a month until NCAAs, but we've still got to get there," Chapman said. "So let's do things right, recover, and get ready to roll."\nThe women will take a slightly different approach to prepare for the final races of the season.\n"We're going to get some solid work out in during the next couple of weeks for most of the girls," Wilson said. "We need to make sure and stay strong. For a couple of others, especially the younger ones, we're going just going to rest"