Mark Reed, Peter Madsen and Lars Juhl finished second, third and fourth, respectively, overall for the Illinois State men's cross country team en route to a second place team finish at the 2000 Bradley Open.
Even without top runner Christian Goy and junior Kevin Bailey, head coach Jeff Pigg was pleased with his team's performance.
"We had a good meet even without Christian and Kevin Bailey running," Pigg said. "Our top three guys looked great, which was very encouraging. It was definitely a positive result. We know we're right on target."
Reed's time of 25:02.81 placed him behind Jason Bialkha of Eastern Illinois who finished the race in 24:37.50. Madsen followed Reed at 25:11.62 while Juhl was right behind Madsen with a time of 25:28.31.
Junior Robert Breit finished 20th with a run of 26:06.94 and Nate Culbertson came in 41st to give the Redbirds a final score of 70. Eastern Illinois ran away with the meet, with a score of 47 points.
On the women's side, Egle Kregzdyte was the top finisher for the 'Birds in 38th place as the team finished 14th out of 18 teams.
"We knew that we weren't going to be a real strong team this year. I'm really proud of the girls' efforts," Pigg said. "We have kids running Division I cross country that really weren't planning on running. We're going to get better, you can count on that."
Next on the Redbird schedule is the Illinois Invitational, September 15.
