The Illinois State mens and womens cross country teams will head to Savoy, Ill., to compete in the Illinois Invitational hosted by the University of Illinois on Saturday, September 22. The races will be held on the Orange and Blue Golf Course.
I think that anytime you have the chance to compete against quality programs like the University of Illinois it is a great opportunity, said head coach Jeff Pigg, whose mens and womens teams have not competed since the Bradley meet on September 7. This meet is loaded with talented teams. There are about eight teams on both mens and womens side that are really good and it will be nice to see where we stack up.
The meet will begin with the mens 8K race at 9:45 a.m. followed by the womens 5K race at approximately 10:30 a.m.
Participating schools in the mens race include Butler, Chicago-State, Cincinnati, Illinois, Illinois-Chicago, Indiana, Iowa, Loyola-Chicago, U.S. Naval Academy, Valparaiso, and Wisconsin-Green Bay. Additionally, the defending Missouri Valley champion Redbirds will face conference opponents Bradley, Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois and Wichita State.
Participating in the womens race will be Butler, Chicago-State, Cincinnati, Illinois, Illinois-Chicago, Indiana, Iowa, Loyola-Chicago, Northwestern, Valparaiso and Wisconsin. The Illinois State womens team will also be facing Valley opponents Bradley, Northern Iowa, Southern Illinois and Wichita State in their race.
Northern Iowa is the number one team in our conference, said Pigg. Wichita State and Bradley are always tough competitors. Im excited to see where we stand at this point in the season against these Missouri Valley teams.
