Oct. 5, 2006
NORMAL, Ill. -
After competing at last weekend's Sean Earl Loyola Lakefront Invitational, head coach Elvis Forde and selected members of the Illinois State cross country team will travel to compete at the Saluki Invitational, Saturday morning in Carbondale, Ill. The meet, which was recently added to the Redbirds' schedule, will allow five runners to gain more competitive experience before they compete at the Bradley Classic and the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championships.
"We added another competition for the student-athletes who we feel are short on competition," said Forde. "They have missed earlier meets for mostly injury-related reasons, and we would like to give them another opportunity before the Bradley Classic and conference championships to compete."
On the women's side, the Redbirds will be sending sophomore Kim Smudde, who rejoined the team at last week's meet after spending the beginning of the season sidelined by injuries, freshman Hannah Radostits, junior Whitney Beals and senior Maureen Nelligan. Junior Taylor Sebestik will be the only member of the men's team heading to the event.
"Kim Smudde, Hannah Radostits, Whitney Beals and Maureen Nelligan will be the members heading to Southern Illinois this weekend," said Forde. "Kim is one of the major reasons that we decided to add this event, because of her value to the team in the next couple of weeks and to let her get another race under her belt. On the men's side, the team has been very healthy for most of the season except for Taylor Sebestik, who we also are taking to the event this weekend."
Southern Illinois, the meet's host, will be joined by fellow Missouri Valley Conference members Creighton and Evansville. Other participants include Arkansas State, Eastern Illinois, Illinois, Missouri-Kansas City, Saint Louis, Southeast Missouri State and Southern Indiana.
The women's 5K race begins at 10 a.m., with the men's 8K race following at 10:45 a.m.
