Sept. 26, 2009

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Three-peat.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville senior runner Kayla Brown outdistanced three SIUC runners for her third consecutive cross country title at the annual Saluki Invitational.

Brown ran the 5,000-meter course in 18 minutes, 27.0 seconds. She bested SIUC's A'Seret Dokubo by seven seconds. Two other Saluki runners cleared the top four.

SIUC won the team title with a score of 34. The Salukis were followed by Washington University (48), Murray State (64), Evansville (99), SIUE (122) and Kaskaskia (183).

Brown's victory was the high point of SIUE's day. Her time was among the 20 fastest in school history but was nearly nine seconds behind her Saluki Invitational time last season.

Aftan Noon was SIUE's next-best finisher in 32nd with a time of 21:16.6. Noon was followed by Heather Hackel (21:40), Jamie Nagel (22:07), Rachel Roustio (22:59) and Elisha Crawley (23:47).

The Cougars will now have a rest until Oct. 10 when they play host to Border Wars at the SIUE Cross Country Course.

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