The Illinois State mens and womens cross country teams head to Carbondale, Ill., on Saturday, November 10, to compete in the NCAA Midwest Regional Meet hosted by Southern Illinois. The 30-team meet with open with the mens 10K race at 10 a.m. and the womens 6K race will follow at 11:15 a.m.
The mens team enters the meet ranked No. 9 regionally. The only other Missouri Valley Conference team with a regional ranking is Northern Iowa at No. 3. Oklahoma State owns the top ranking.
Competing for the Redbirds in the mens race will be seniors Christian Goy, Robert Breit and Kevin Bailey, junior Walter Ogola and sophomores John Shaffer and Todd Quedneau.
The womens team enters the meet without a top 10 regional ranking.
The womens team will feature the Valley Female Cross Country Athlete of the Year senior Stacia Beste, junior Jen Klostermann, and freshmen Diana Ainsley, Laura Kennedy, Leah Smith and Kelly Forst.
We ran well at the conference meet, but there are people on both teams that feel they can do even better, said head coach Jeff Pigg. The teams are upbeat and excited about having another meet this season. Enthusiam (on the teams) is high right now and I think our momentum has carried us throughout the season. I think we have the ability to surprise some people at this meet.
The 30 schools competing in the meet include: Bradley, Chicago St., Creighton, DePaul, Drake, Eastern Illinois, Illinois, Illinois State, Illinois-Chicago, Iowa, Iowa St., Kansas, Kansas St., Loyola-Chicago, Minnesota, Missouri, UMKC, Nebraska, Northern Illinois, Northern Iowa, Northwestern, Oklahoma, Oklahoma St., Oral Roberts, Saint Louis, Southeast Missouri St., Southwest Missouri St., Tulsa, Western Illinois and Wichita State.
