(LEBANON, Ill. - Sept. 17) - The McKendree University men's and women's cross country programs are back on the road this weekend as they travel to Missouri Southern State University for the Southern Stampede. The 30th Annual Cross Country meet will be held at the Tom Rutledge Cross Country Course on Saturday. The women's 5K race will begin at 8:30 a.m. and the men's 8K race will follow at 9:45 a.m.

"This is a pretty big meet and a lot of teams will compete," said head coach Agne Eggerth, "so I'm expecting our teams to step-up and compete well."

The Bearcats had a week off to train, focus, and work on different things they saw from their season-opener at the University of Illinois-Springfield Prairie Star Invitational earlier this month, according to Eggerth. The women ran a 5K and finished in fourth-place with a score of 98. They had a top-10 finish by sophomore Madelyn Tepe (Venedy, IL) with a 20:21.8 finish time. For the men, they ran a 7K and finished in seventh-place with a score of 169. Senior Tyler Manion (Granite City, IL/Granite City) was the first to cross the finish line for the Bearcats with a 24:54.7 finish time.

According to assistant coach Hannah Inyart, the runners to likely lead this weekend's meet will be Tepe and Kayla Tirey (Collinsville, IL) (21:21.6 finish time) for the women, and Manion and Jimmy Reed (Belleville, IL/Belleville West High School) (25:52.9 finish time) for the men.

"Our athletes are working hard but we still have a lot to put in," said Inyart. "This weekend is a big meet, we will see some good competition, hopefully get some personal records and race through, then it will be back to work."

The MSSU Lions are coming off their season-opener sweep at the Southwest Baptist University Bearcat Cross Country Invitational. Junior Julianna Determan (18:03.8 finish time) and sophomore Gidieon Kimutai (20:04.4 finish time) won the individual titles for their races and secured the team title for the Lions.

The results of Saturday's meet will be posted at www.heartlandtiming.com