Saturday night the Saint Louis University cross country team faced their biggest test of the season at the Books Twilight meet. The race featured 40 squads in the men’s and women’s fields. Under the lights of the Memphis sky, both squads were led by their top runners-seniors Steve Vargas and Laura Coyer-both who broke school records, leading the squads to second and fifth place finishes overall.
On the men’s side Vargas covered the 8K course with a time of 25:10.63, shattering the nine-year old record established by Mike Lueke. While records are important to the senior captain it is the team that will always have top priority.
“I always knew the school record in the back of my mind, but to tell you the truth it wasn’t something that even occurred to me on Saturday when I ran the race,” Vargas said. “I was really just hoping to run my race and the focus team having our guys run to their potential and five of our top guys ran personal records so that speaks volumes to how we responded.”
The Brooks Memphis Twilight saw an event in which the last 200 meters of the race were littered with screaming fans. Vargas said such conditions bring out the best in runners, and he was no exception.
“The race really carried me,” Vargas said. “It was a special atmosphere. The lights were on and the crowd was into it near the end. Everything was perfect.”
For his efforts, Vargas was named the Atlantic 10 Men’s Cross Country Performer of the week. He was the first Billiken runner-men’s or women’s-to capture the honor since the team moved from Conference USA three seasons ago. He finished 18th overall in the race and the team’s finished fifth among 42 teams that competed. Following Vargas for the Bills was freshman Brian Holdmeyer (25:54) and junior Mat Stuber (25:56).
Vargas said his efforts were more impressive considering he tapered his training this summer.
“It was very surprising to tell you the truth,” he said. “The past couple of seasons I’ve been logging heavy miles in the off-season, but this summer I was injured and focused more on the little things. I ate right I worked out three to four times a week and since I couldn’t run as much, I swam and biked a lot more and eventually it paid off.”
Coyer knew that she had a chance to do something special at the meet last summer.
“Coach told me this summer about the course at Memphis, and that I had a great chance to break the record,” Coyer said. “It’s a flat course and there weren’t many hills, so I knew it was a possibility.
The record seemed out of reach for Coyer after she ran a second mile of 6:00, but she bounced back with a negative split, running a blistering 5:45 in the third mile.
Her time of 18:07 bested previous record-holder Aimee Walther’s by one second. She finished sixth in the race while teammate Mary Maloney finished 13th in a field of more than 300 runners.
“As a friend, I’m really happy for Laura,” Vargas said. “She was battling injuries the same way I was during this summer, and I’m really excited she was able to break the record. Hopefully this will be a great springboard for her in conference. I was really proud and happy to see her break it.”
Coyer, the lone senior on the team, is particularly deferential to Maloney, a junior.
“As the only senior, I know a lot of the younger girls look up to me, but I’m not doing it alone,” Coyer said. “Mary Maloney has co-led this team. The girls look to both of us to set the pacing at practice and lead the warm-ups at meet.”
Vargas said that he is grateful to have strong leaders with him on the squad.
“It’s been great having senior Tim Hamilton be a captain. He’s taken a lot of pressure off me helping lead the guys and encouraging them throughout their training,” Vargas said.
The Billikens will take the course in Peoria at the Bradley Invitational today. It is their final tune-up before the A-10 Championships in Philadelphia.
“Since the beginning of the season we’ve been working for the conference,” Vargas said. “Our whole training program is designed to peak towards the A-10 championships.”
