Masacari Breaks Sycamore 8K Record At Pre-Nationals

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. (WTHI) - Senior Al Escalera established a new Indiana State 8,000 meter record two weeks ago at Notre Dame. That record was broken Saturday by freshman John Mascari who led the Indiana State men at the Pre-National Invitational Saturday with a 34th place finish in a school record time of 23:55.4.

Escalera was the second Indiana State runner to cross the finish stripe as he equaled his personal best and the previous school record of 24:05.8. Senior Dustin Betz also established a personal best and ran the fourth fastest time in school history as he finished in 24:22.2 which placed him 87th overall.

Rounding out the Sycamore effort was sophomore Tristan Selby who ran a personal best 25:01.7 to finish 170th, freshman Gabe Ocasio with a personal best 25:07.4 to finish 183rd, freshman Taylor Head was 216th in 25:29.2, and sophomore Milton Brinza 260th in a personal best 26:23.8.

The Sycamores finished 20th out of the 40 teams in the seeded Men’s Red race with 530 points. Seventh ranked Colorado won the team title with 72 points with third ranked Brigham Young finished second (127), and 15th ranked Oregon third (152).

Texas-El Paso freshman Anthony Rotich was the individual champion as he ran the 8,000 meters in 23:01.0 while UNC-Greensboro junior Paul Chelimo was second in 23:14.0, and Eastern Michigan senior Terefe Ejigu was third in 23:15.7.

The Indiana State women also had a good day on the course at E.P. Tom Sawyer State Park with the Sycamores led once again by junior Jessica Zangmeister with a 10th place finish in a personal best 21:49.1 over the 6,000 meter course. The junior is now tied with Dani Prince for sixth on the ISU All-Time 6K list.

Sophomore Nichole Lucas moved into the eighth spot on the Sycamore All-Time list as she finished in 22:14.9 to place 31st. Junior Kalli Dalton also established a personal best Saturday with a time of 22:48.1 in placing 72nd while senior Hanna Mercer was the fourth Sycamore to set personal bests as she finished in 23:18.7 to place 107th.

Sophomore Amy Hicks rounded out Indiana State’s scoring with a 153 rd place finish in 24:18.7. Also running for the Sycamores was senior Serena Simeoli (164) with a personal best 24:39.9, sophomore Lindy Jones (165) with a personal best 24:41.1, junior Shelby Sands (223 rd) in 24:59.0, and freshman Emily Cotterman (225) in 25:16.3.

The Sycamore team finished 14th overall with 373 points. Utah Valley won the team race with 154 points with West Virginia second (157) and South Carolina third (186). South Carolina freshman Kayla Lampe was the individual champion in 21:03.5 with Michigan freshman Taylor Manett second in 21:14.8, and Utah State sophomore Alex Litzsinger third in 21:15.4.

Indiana State will be off for two weeks as they prepare for the 2012 Missouri Valley Conference Men’s and Women’s Cross Country Championships which will be held at Illinois State University on Oct. 27.