The Pre-NCAA meet offered a major challenge to the Illinois State womens cross country team Saturday.
With the Missouri Valley Conference Championships only two short weeks away, the Redbirds prepared for the meet by facing some of the best teams in the country. The women finished 33rd in the 6K, with Laura Kennedy as the top Redbird finisher, placing 75th with a time of 21:52.8. Betsy McDonald was 117th with a time of 22:23.1.
Leah Smith was 195th with a time of 23:14.4, while Diana Ainsley was 202nd (23:26.1) and Suzy Turner was 215th (23:38.6).
With two additional weeks to go until the conference meet, its great to see everyone have a very good race, head track and field/cross country coach Elvis Forde said. Its going to take some very big effort on Oct. 30, but we have a chance to be there at the end.
The men traveled to LaCrosse, Wis., for the Jim Drews/Tori Neubauer Invite where cross country coach Chris Bailey instilled a different running strategy for the Redbirds this weekend. The men finished 17th overall.
We came in with a plan to start out a little bit easier this weekend, Bailey said. However, we started the race off too slow. Earlier in the season, we were starting off too fast. We need to find a middle ground.
Greg Baker was the top finisher for the men, placing 72nd with a time of 26:51.6, while Dan Tripp was 91st with a time of 27:33.6.
Greg Baker stuck out in my mind today, Bailey said. He ran a solid race despite the slow team start. His last three miles were very good.
The Redbirds take next weekend off before heading to the MVC Championships in Carbondale on Oct. 30.
