OU Sends Men and Women to Chile Pepper CC Festival

The University of Oklahoma men's and women's cross country teams will head to Fayetteville, Ark., Friday for Saturday's 12th annual Chile Pepper Festival. The meet features a men's collegiate 10k event, a women's collegiate 6k event, an open event, a fun run/walk and races for high school and junior high school boys and girls.
This event is the final regular season race for the Sooners who will compete in the Big 12 Championships on October 31.

The Field
One of two major meets this weekend in the collegiate cross country world (the other being the Pre-National Meet in Waterloo, Iowa), the Chile Pepper is drawing one of the largest fields in its history. The women's field currently includes 38 teams and the men's field is just as packed. The race draws entries from Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma as well as from the Southeastern Conference schools.

Competing for the Sooners
Scheduled to compete for the OU men in Fayetteville are seniors Jimmy Buchanan, Trevor Gillum, Darren Hutchins, Silverus Kimeli and Joe McNair, junior Andrew Call, sophomore Billy Grona and freshmen Jason Coleman, Salah Hussein and Tyler Schmiedeberg. The OU women will be represented by senior Amanda Luksetich, juniors Jackie Dubois and Emily Leonard and freshmen Andrea Bonner, Kristi Cook, Jessica Eldridge, Nicola Maye and Catherine Odell and Shannon Wilson.
The Sooners will hold out three men, including Blake Culp who has been among OU's top five several times this season. All are experiencing minor injuries and Coach Rodney Rothoff wanted to give them a weekend off from competition before the conference meet.

Heading 'Home'
Silverus Kimeli, who has led the Sooners throughout the 2003 season, will be returning to his former training/competing grounds on Saturday. Kimeli was a multi-time All-American for the Razorbacks before transferring to OU to begin work on a graduate degree.

Sooners Ranked In Regional Polls
A pair of strong performances in the FinishLynx/Murray Keatinge Invitational on Oct. 4 helped boost the OU men's and women's cross country teams in the regional rankings.
The Sooner men, ranked seventh in the poll on Sept. 29, went to third on Oct. 6 and continue to be ranked to third in the MONDO Division I men's poll. The OU men were ranked 10th in the preseason poll, conducted by the United States Cross Country Coaches Association, after finishing 13th in the NCAA Regional last year.
The Sooner women, unranked in the region at the beginning of the season, moved from seventh in the Sept. 30 poll to sixth in the Finish/Lynx women's Division I poll on Oct. 6. That poll is conducted by the Women's Intercollegiate Cross Country Coaches Association.

Eldridge Earns Conference Honor
Freshman Jessica Eldridge was named the Big 12 Female Cross Country Runner of the Week Oct. 7 for her performance the FinishLynx/Murray Keatinge Invitational.
She becomes the second Sooner woman to earn the award in the seven-plus years of the conference. Andrea DeLozier won the honor during the 1998 season as a junior. Eldridge also became the second Sooner to earn the honor this season. Senior Silverus Kimeli was named the Big 12 Male Cross Country Runner of the Week on Sept. 16. He was the first Sooner man to earn the weekly honor in conference history.
Eldridge finished eighth in the women's 5k at the FinishLynx/Murray Keatinge Invitational in Maine. The Broken Arrow, Okla., native ran her third 5k as a collegian and set her third career best mark at the meet. Eldridge covered the course in 17:19.10 to drop 13 seconds off the career best time she had posted Sept. 20.

The Last Time Out
Silverus Kimeli led OU in the FinishLynx/Murray Keatinge Invitational, finishing 10th in the five mile race with a 24:17.70. Senior Joe McNair finished 16th with a 24:35.80 and senior Jimmy Buchanan was 24th with a 24:41.40. OU had all seven of its runners finish in the top 45 of the race which included 107 runners. The Sooner men finished fourth overall in the team standings. Six of the seven Sooner runners also established career best marks in the event.
True freshman Jessica Eldridge posted her third consecutive career best mark in the 5k to finish eighth and lead the OU women to a third place team finish. She covered the course in 17:19.10. Redshirt freshman Nicola Maye finished 10th with a 17:49.50 and true freshman Catherine Odell finished 12th with an 18:02.90 as the Sooners placed all five runners in the top 35 of the event which included 80 competitors. Three of the five Sooner women improved their career best times.
The rest of the Sooners headed to Stillwater for the 67th annual OSU Jamboree on Oct. 4. Salah Hussein covered the 8k course in 26:26 to lead the Sooner men at the meet. The OU men finished 22nd in the team standings while the Sooner women did not field a complete team and had no team score.
Hussein finished 80th individually to lead OU. Andrew Call finished 97th with a 26:40 followed by Andrew Tower who was 97th with a 26:42. Trevor Gillum was 114th with a 26:59 and Billy Grona was 145th with a 28:04.
Amanda Luksetich led the Sooner women, finishing the 6k course in 23:35 for 85th place. Jackie Dubois was 119th with a 25:04 followed by Shannon Wilson, who was 127th with a 25:36, and Emily Leonard, who finished 161st with a 29:17.

The Coach
Rodney Rothoff joined the Sooner coaching staff in August 2002 after two seasons as the head cross country and assistant track coach for the Tennessee women's program. In his tenure in Knoxville, Rothoff coached 11 NCAA cross country and track All-Americans. He coached the 2002 SEC champion in the outdoor 800 and had four All-SEC cross country selections. His 2001 cross country team was the SEC runner-up.
A 1990 graduate of Methodist College in North Carolina, Rothoff has also coached Clemson and Arkansas-Little Rock.
His impact on the Sooners was demonstrated last November as the OU men finished 13th in the NCAA Regional, OU's best finish in the regional meet in six years. He also saw one of his runners, Aldwyn Sappleton, qualify for the 2003 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor meets and earn All-America honors in the outdoor 800.

The Coach Says
On the this weekend's competition: 'We face three challenges this weekend. First, we have to adapt to the longer distance (10k for the men, 6k for the women). The level of competition is continuing to increase and we must adapt to the number of people actually running the race. This is our first time this season to run in a meet with more than 20 teams. With the number of people at the beginning of the race, it is more important than ever to stay together as a team and keep the gap between your first to fifth runner as small as possible. Everything we face this weekend will help us prepare for the championship competition that awaits in the weeks ahead.'
On his Sooners after two more weeks of training: 'Without a doubt, this is the toughest part of the season. We are at our greatest intensity and volume in terms of training plus we have the added challenge of midterms in the classroom. I am pleased with our progress and I'm looking forward to watching our teams compete again this weekend.'
The weekend will be a success if ...: 'We have to focus on decreasing the gap between our first and fifth runner, especially since the distance is longer. We are ready physically for the longer race and we have to be focused to meet the mental challenge of the distance.'

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