After a rough weekend at the Iowa State 6K last Friday, Illinois State cross country coach Chris Bailey felt that the Redbird mens squad needed a confidence booster.
A select group from the mens and womens team will travel to Carbondale for a meet on the campus of Southern Illinois Saturday, and while a veteran womens squad continues to have success, the men are still searching for a complete race. Bailey is confident that they can turn the corner this weekend.
We need to start putting some good races together and I think Southern (Illinois) is a good place to start doing that, Bailey said. Were going to keep the number of people competing down this week, but were going to get the kids in there that need a boost of confidence.
Junior Dan Tripp will make his 2004 cross country debut for the Redbirds this weekend after foot problems hampered him throughout the summer. Tripp has not competed since the end of the outdoor track and field season, and has not been running consistently since June.
Dans feeling healthy and hes been working out the past two weeks better than I expected, Bailey said. Since its been awhile since hes raced, hes going to be a little rusty. But were putting Dan in there right now because I feel he can help us out right away and we need the help right now.
After a strong outing by the women last weekend, Bailey is giving the majority of the team a much-needed break.
We ran a good race at Iowa State, and we wanted to be rested and healthy going into the pre-national meet, Bailey said.
Diana Ainsley fought her way back from injuries all season and Bailey sees the senior from Palatine as a major player in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Diana is coming along real well, Bailey said. I think shes going to start closing the gap a little and running up there with our top runners like Betsy (McDonald) and Laura (Kennedy). Thats going to help our overall team score.
She had the top time in our workouts on Tuesday and I really feel that were putting ourselves in position to be very successful at the conference meet.
