Oct. 12, 2007
Results
Peoria, Ill. -
Freshman Matt Mroczynski claimed his second top finish of the season for the Illinois State men's cross country team Friday, as he ran a personal-best time of 24 minutes, 41 seconds and keyed the men to a second-place team finish at the Bradley Classic, held on the Newman Golf Course in Peoria, Ill. The Illinois State women's team finished in fourth place and was led by senior Suzy Turner who ran the women's 6K race in 21:54 (19th), 57 seconds better than her 12th-place finish at last years Bradley Classic.
Head Coach Jeff Bovee felt that the Redbird men had their top performance of the year, and he was proud of how strong they finished the race.
"Matt (Mroczynski) was leading the race from 4K through 7K, until Missouri's top runner (Dave Hedgecock) caught up to him and finished just ahead of Matt," said Bovee. "To have a true freshman come out and run a challenging course was great.
"The men really had their best performance of the year. We are really starting to close the gap between our first and fifth runners."
The Redbird men finished second from a field of 15 teams. Missouri won the team race with 27 points.
The Redbird men solidified their team with Mroczynski leading the pack in the 8K race. Sophomore Scott Krapf placed fourth with a time of 24:45, followed closely behind by sophomore Jordan Anderson (24:48), who finished fifth. Despite struggling with tendinitis in his knee junior Mike Richardson placed eighth with a personal-best time of 25:04. Rounding out the men's performance was freshman Luke Ryan, who finished with a personal-best time of 25:48 (35th).
Bovee was pleased with the women's performance and felt that they ran the second half of the race better than any other team.
"I was really pleased with our women's depth," said Bovee. "We need to continually get better up front, but I believe that we really handled our first 6K race of the season well."
Junior Kathleen Thompson was the ISU women's team second finisher, running a 22:13 for a 29th-place finish. Sophomore Kim Ebbesen (22:17) and freshman Sarah Glowacki (22:19) finished 31st and 32nd, respectively, for the `Birds. Rounding out the women's performances was freshman Jess Husted, who placed 35th with a time of 22:21.
"We could not have asked for a better performance as we get ready to head into The Valley Championship," said Bovee.
The ISU men's and women's cross county teams will see action in two weeks, as they head to the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Championships in Cedar Falls, Iowa, Oct. 27.
