The Monmouth College cross country teams competed in the Midwest Conference Championships on Saturday and sophomore Paige Luntsford (Cairo, Missouri) earned All-Conference with a 16th place finish for the women . The women finished sixth with 163 points while men finished in eighth place with a score of 191 as all 11 runners set new 

"Both the teams raced with great intention and grit today" said head coach Cooper Pauley. "You could tell they were all focused on getting the best out of themselves and looking for any opportunity to catch one extra competitor."

WOMEN

Luntsford (Cairo, Missouri) ran 22:34.1 to finish 16th and record a top 10 time in Monmouth history at the MWC Championships. She also took more than 90 seconds off her PR from the 
same course last month and she posted the seventh best MWC 6K time in Monmouth history. 

Melissa Bivolarov (Arlington Heights, Illinois) finished 33rd in a new PR of 23:38.0. That time is 82 seconds better than her time at last year's MWC Championships and she improved by three places in the standings. 

Junior Samantha Costello (Morris, Illinois) finished 40th in 24:02.0, 43 seconds better than her PR which came at last year's MWC Championships. Freshman Amelia Iwanski (Saint Charles, Illinois) finished 66th in 26:18.4, just ahead of Adyson Beebe (Clinton, Illinois) 26:18.8 as both set PRs. 

MEN

Junior Xander Stoub (Palos Heights, Illinois)  finished 24th in 26:39.5 and sophomore Fernando Avila Rubio (Alpha, Illinois) finished 23rd in 26:43.0 as both set new PRs. Freshman Riley Morgan (Jewett, Illinois) took nearly two minutes off his PR with a 45th place finish in 27:28.9. . Freshman Braden Rees (Galesburg, Illinois) finished 70th, also in a PR with a time of 28:27.9 
Freshman Brady Young (Paxton, Illinois) finished 95th in 30:24.2, a new best by more than two minutes. Junior Larry Kamara (Alpha, Illinois) was 96th in 30:30.3, a PR by 2:30.

"It is rare to have a day where you walk away knowing that every person had their best performance of the season so far but today was one of those days," said Pauley. "I'm excited to take this momentum into the next two weeks and finish strong at NCAA Regionals on Nov. 15."

MONMOUTH MOMENTS: Luntsford is Monmouth's first female All-Conference runner since three runners finished in the top 20 in 2019…She was 75th last year in 27:33.34, improving by more than five minutes…She also took 94 seconds off her PR…Iwanski had a PR by more than two minutes from the same course last month and Beebe lowered her PR by 90 seconds, also from the same course…Stoub took 25 seconds off his PR from last year and 56 seconds off his season-best time…Avila Rubio was 36 seconds better than his previous PR which was on the same course last month…Morgan ran 29:24.8 on the same course last month and was nearly two minutes better on Saturday…Rees was also nearly two minutes better than his previous PR…Young's previous best was 32:26 at Augustana in the last race and Kamara's was 33:00.5, also at Augie…Stoub was 30th last year at the MWC Championships and Avila Rubio was 75th…The Scots are off next weekend before running in the NCAA Midwest Region Meet on Nov. 15 in Waverly, Iowa.