Nov. 9, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
Coming off a strong finish at the State Farm Missouri Valley Conference Cross Country Championships (Oct. 27), the Illinois State men's and women's cross country teams will head to Peoria, Ill., to compete at the NCAA Midwest Regional Championships, held at the Newman Golf Course Saturday.
The NCAA Midwest Regional Championship, hosted by Bradley, will assemble 25 men's squads and 30 women's teams. The Midwest Region is comprised of nine states representing Division I schools from Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota.
The Redbird men's and women's cross country teams enter Saturday's contest ranked No. 9 and 14, respectively, in the Division I NCAA Midwest Regional Rankings, as voted on by the U.S. Track and Fiend and Cross Country Coaches Association (USTFCCCA).
Head Coach Jeff Bovee believes that his teams have the ability to finish higher than the projected polls.
"I expect this team to close out the season with another quality performance," said Bovee. "I think that the men have the ability to finish anywhere from sixth to 10th place. I also think that if the women run well, we could finish anywhere from 10th to 12th place. We ran this course at the Bradley Classic (Oct.12) and really did well, so I feel we are going to have an advantage since we are comfortable with the course."
Competing on Saturday for the Redbird men will be junior captain Mike Richardson; sophomores Jordan Anderson, Scott Krapf and Rob Barkulis; and freshmen Matt Mroczynski, Jon Roberts and Luke Ryan.
The men will be running a 10K race, two meters longer than what they have ran all season. However, Bovee is confident that the men will fair well on a longer course.
"It will be good for us to run against competition outside of our conference," said Bovee. "With that said we are going to need strong performances from our fifth, sixth and seventh runners in order to do well. Our guys are long distance runners, and should not be affected by the longer distance."
Running in her last cross country race as a Redbird senior captain, Suzy Turner will look to guide the `Birds for a sixth-straight race. Also running at the regional championships will be juniors Natalie Scatena and Stacey Turilli; sophomore Kim Ebbesen, freshman Jess Husted, Sarah Glowacki and Gina Kapusta.
The men's 10K race is scheduled to kick off at 11 a.m., followed by the women's 6K at 12:15 p.m., at Newman Golf Course in Peoria, Ill.
