Sept. 22, 2007
Results
CARBONDALE, Ill. -
Illinois State cross country head coach Jeff Bovee and a select group of men's and women's runners traveled south to Carbondale, Ill. for an opportunity to gain more race experience at the Saluki Invitational, hosted by Southern Illinois Saturday. The Redbird men's team placed sixth and the Redbird women's team placed fifth at the meet.
The Redbirds not only went up against tough competition, but faced hot and humid weather and a challenging course at the Saluki Invitational.
Bovee feels that the challenging course and weather added a component to the race that tested his runners.
"The course had some good hills and places where roots and other things were in the way so they really had to watch their footing," said Bovee. "The guys said that they had a hard time getting into a rhythm because of the course, which is different for them since they just came off two races where they could find a rhythm, but I feel like they adjusted to the change and competed well."
Freshman Zack Johnson paced the Redbird men to a sixth-place finish, coming in 22nd place with a time of 27minutes, 25.02 seconds in the 8K race. Sophomore Rob Barkulis finished in 27th place with a time of 27:39.00 and senior Taylor Sebestik came in third for the `Birds clocking in at 27:45.08 (30th place). Rounding out the men's performances with 34th and 35th place finishes, respectively, were junior Ryan Lay (28:05.05) and freshman Jim Link (28:09.58).
"Zack and Ryan had a really good race," said Bovee. "Those two ran within 30 seconds of their times that they ran last week and showed the most improvement. Rob had a good race as well and overall I was pretty please with the men's performances."
The Redbird women were led by a young group and placed fifth against six other teams in the women's 5K. Freshman Michelle Brunk led the Redbirds, finishing in 21st place with a time of 20:04.12. Freshmen Jenny Kraakevik (20:19.76), Kerby Waddell (20:37.68) and Katie Cooper (20:43.96) placed 25th, 29th and 32nd, respectively, for the `Birds. Rounding out the women's performances was junior Kim Smudde who clocked in at 20:58.15 (36th place) and freshman Lisa Devereux who finished in 46th place with a time of 22:26.70.
"I think that Michelle is getting more fit," said Bovee. "This is only her second race and she is still trying to figure things out. I think she still has a long ways to go, but she has time and it will be interesting to see what she can do because she has a lot of strength that she can still develop over the next couple of weeks."
Missouri Valley Conference foe and host, Southern Illinois took the men's team title with 23 points. The Saluki men were led by the 2006 MVC cross country champion Mohamed Mohamed (25:33.99), and placed eight runners in the top-15. Nick Waninger an unattached participant and graduate student at SIU won the men's individual title with a time of 25:13.54.
Southeast Missouri State took the women's team title with 39 points, placing six runners in the top-15 in the women's 5K race. Kayla Brown of Southern Illinois-Edwardsville won the individual title with a time of 18:26.60.
The Redbird cross country team will be in full force next Friday, Sept. 28, as they compete at the Notre Dame Invitational in South Bend, Ind.
