Oct. 12, 2002

CARBONDALE, Ill. - The University of Memphis men's cross country team finished eighth out of nine teams at the SIU-Carbondale Invitational, Saturday morning. Southern Indiana won the team title with 39 points, while the Tigers finished with 184 points.

Senior Hugh Ferry, a transfer from Campbell University, led the Tigers with an 11th-place finish in 26:20.71, improving his 8K time by 23 seconds. Senior Travis Pressler, who transferred to Memphis from SIU prior to this season, finished 17th overall in 26:37.90, shaving almost a full minute off his previous best. Senior Ryan Smith finished 38th overall in 27:55.08 while twin brothers Rahad Mahmood and Imran Mahmood finished 45th and 50th, respectively, in 28:30.15 and 29:10.29.

The Tigers were without senior Balazs Laszlo, who had four top 10 and two top five finishes so far this season. This marks the second meet Laszlo has missed for the Tigers with just one meet remaining before the C-USA championships, Nov. 2nd. The Tigers will wrap up their conference meet preparations with a meet at Arkansas, next Saturday.

Team Finishes
1.	Southern Indiana, 39 points
2.	Indiana State, 45 points
3.	Southern Illinois, 110 points
4.	Murray State, 112 points
5.	Southeast Missouri State, 172 points
6.	Austin Peay, 273 points
7.	Saint Louis, 179 points
8.	Memphis, 184 points
9.	Vanderbilt, 205 points

Top 10 Finishers
1.	Doron Giat, Southern Illinois, 25:26.64
2.	Joey Bryne, Southern Indiana, 25:38.24
3.	Isaiah Stafford, Indiana State, 25:40.66
4.	Mark Therner, Southern Indiana, 25:47.35
5.	Will Siemers, Southern Indiana, 25:56.15
6.	Ryan Davis, Murray State, 26:01.02
7.	Mike Faschel, Indiana State, 26:03.92
8.	Aaron Harding, Indiana State, 26:08.75
9.	Jeremy Burkeen, Murray State, 26:10.19
10.	Eric Flemming, Southern Indiana, 26;12.00

Memphis Finishers
11.	Hugh Ferry, 26:20.71
17.	Travis Pressler, 26;37.90
38.	Ryan Smith, 27:55.08
45.	Rahad Mahmood, 28:30.15
50. 	Imram Mahmood, 29:10.29