Sept. 15, 2005
With two meets under its belt this season, the Redbird cross country squad will look to continue to improve its performance as the `Birds compete in the Illinois Pack It Up Challenge at the U of I Arboretum in Urbana on Saturday.
Head cross country coach Chris Bailey wants to see improvements from both squads this weekend at Illinois.
"I want to see the men's and women's teams continue to show improvements each week," said Bailey. "The workouts are starting to kick in, and I think in the next two weeks we will really start to see some things happen. We really only worked out two or three times before this past meet so I didn't expect them to have fresh legs. But now they have a couple races under their belts; and we're getting deeper into the season and I would expect their performances to pick up a little bit."
With only four meets left, including the meet this weekend, the Redbird are preparing for the Valley Championships. That preparation includes three of the men's top five runners sitting out this weekend of competition. Jeremy Doherty, who has yet to compete for the `Birds this season, will be out again along with Dan Tripp, who has led the Redbirds in the first two meets, and Geoff Houtman.
"Our top three guys, Jeremy, Dan and Geoff will be out this weekend to rest," said Bailey. "I do expect the guys who are competing to go out and run hard. Jeremy is still recovering from mono and the other two guys just need a weekend off. We're still trying to bring Jeremy along slowly and hopefully by conference he'll be able to help us out."
The women will run a full squad this weekend as they compete against No. 14 Illinois, Loyola and Augustana. The women's 5k race is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m., following the men's 8k race at 9 a.m.
"The women will have some tough competition this weekend with Illinois being ranked in the top 15 in the nation," said Bailey. "Loyola also has some very good runners with the freshman recruits they signed this season."
