Oct. 12, 2005
Normal, Ill. -
With only two weeks before the 2005 State Farm Missouri Valley Cross Country Championships, the Illinois State cross country squad will compete in the Bradley Cross Country Classic on Friday, against a couple Valley schools as a final tune-up before the championships on October 29.
Head cross country coach Chris Bailey sees the Bradley meet as a final chance to prepare his squad for the championships.
"This is our last chance and final tune-up before the conference championships," said Bailey. "This meet is going to be more of an emotional, mental booster than seeing where we stand physically. If we're not physically ready by now then we won't be ready by the championships. It will be critical that we run well on Friday to get our confidence up and feel good going into the conference meet. It's just a matter of believing in ourselves."
Valley teams competing include Bradley, Drake and Northern Iowa.
Bailey is confident in the women's team and seeing them come together this weekend.
"The women's team is about where it needs to be," said Bailey. "We still haven't clicked 100 percent as a full team where one through six have been on at the same time. I'm looking for a little more of that this weekend, and putting it all together at the conference meet."
The last time the cross country squad competed was two weeks ago at Loyola. The women's team placed 7th with freshman Kathleen Thompson leading the way with a 21st place finish. The men's team placed 24th and have been making improvements since in practice.
"The guys are definitely improving and that's one of the most important things that we want to see right now," said Bailey. "They've been working hard in practice and continue to improve."
Using the meet this weekend as a measuring stick, Bailey plans to taper down the workouts before the championships and determine how well the hard work has been paying off.
"We're going to back off the lifting, the mileage, the morning runs and start to do some shorter interval work," added Bailey. "I think over the next week or two our legs should be fresh going into the conference championships. That's been the goal the whole year. I think the women are really responding well right now. However, our guys were disappointed after Loyola, but in the past week or two they have really stepped it up in terms of the workouts. So we'll see if it is all paying off on Friday at Bradley."
The women's race is scheduled to begin at 4:15 p.m. with the men following at 5 p.m.
